[wwwSENSERELYcom]

I think (not tested) in the file /lib/search.php there is a variable line 16 on beta9.5
it's NULL per default you should set it to:
link_date DESC

because at line 110 there's:

if(isset($this->orderBy)){
$this->orderBy = "ORDER BY " . $this->orderBy;
}

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

forget what I wrote above, in fact you should not change anything on line 16 because that's the class declaration and it should be neutral.

but on line 125 begins the search function which is where you can change for links and tags

so for links you can add after line 150 something like
$this->orderBy = "link_date DESC";

try this maybe it will work.

for tags, it depends with what you want to order them, by alphabetical order or what.. but it begins not at line 150 but at line 133