The variance in sponsored listings in Google - is this the future?

[mryang]

I have been playing around with different searches and locations (home, office, library, internet cafe) all these are in my local area so I would have throught served by the same data.

What surprised me was OK my site did consistantly come up No2 on google for the same term, but on two of the searches there appeared a large number of 'sponsored listings' and the natural results appeared below the fold so to speak - meaning the sponsored results appeared to the untrained eye to be the natural listings.

I havent seen behavior from Google before - so the question is, is this the future of google? Do they intend to plaster the best part of the search results with sponsored listings and move away from the natural promotion.

[morestar]

Well I have seen sponsored listings above the natural listings now for over even 4 years. If I am wrong, someone correct me but I'm sure I'm not.

Remember Google is a business too and they have to make money. Maybe once their quality score for particular ads are really high or good, they like to pump those ads above the organic results because they strongly believe they are relevant results.

So yes it does seem that at times we're going to to see sponsored ads just above the organic results.

I notice that if I hit the search button a second time, the sponsored ads show up - not always but there is a tiny pattern I'm noticing.

[deepsand]

Nothing new here.

SEs, Google included, earns nothing from organic listings, or any of their services, aside from ads.

Without ad revenues, there would be no Google, etal..

[seopo]

You can have a map with local listings, products to buy from froogle, and news all appear above the organic listings too.

But don't wory too much about the fold. People do scroll and know about ads.

ps. you can get listed in all of the above types too without too much effort.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by seopo

You can have a map with local listings, products to buy from froogle, and news all appear above the organic listings too.

ps. you can get listed in all of the above types too without too much effort.

All non-organic listings precede organic ones?