approx 41% of screen real estate is adwords now

I used the following search:
http://www.google.com/search?complete=1&hl=en&q=airline+ticket&btnG=Google+Search

and my screen is 1280x1268

I cut out three regions

1) Top sponsers listings, 1265x170 = 215,050
2) Side Sponser listings, 308x590 = 181,720
3) Actual Google Results, 958x593 = 568,094

Total Ad space in pixels = 396,770
Total Results space in pixels = 568,094

By my remedial math skills, this is 58.9% google results and 41.1% adwords space.

I bet this will change over time to be even worse.
This was just what fit "Above the fold".

 

I'd say "airline tickets" is a pretty commercial term...

Searches for less commercial terms result in less ads being displayed.

 

For how long though?

One of the reasons I, like many, liked google.com was its clean interface and results screen.

I might as well use yahoo and msn now and just click on sponsered ads for results. thats what is happening at google.

We all know via various studies that the majority of the traffic goes to the top 3 results, which wow, is how many google allows on top.

Don't get me wrong, they still do no more ad space then yahoo, msn, altavista, ask - but they have definitely gone to the dark side here.

 

To be honest it doesnt bother me... they are on a side and arent catchy I always just look at the main content asap

 

Google realized that people "liking" them didn't pay the bills

 

sorry, 3 at the top isn't the side..

 

I agree, I don't see any problem with ads on the right side

 

agreed!

 

Umm, but google now does the top also quite often.

Or haven't you noticed that? The link/search I did in post #1 should show their 3 ads on the top. you see that?

 

I've never seen 3, 2 at most

 

Honestly, Google can push the ad coverage right up to about 1% behind whatever Yahoo or MSN do...and they know it.

I still see 3 organic results without scrolling on G when I search for airline tickets - only 2 on Yahoo

(1024x768 btw)

Yes, I see 3 ads on top. I'm pretty sure I've seen 3 before for commercial terms.

 

Weird, I only see 2

But those guys are the ones that are also showing their ads via Adsense, that means that they are helping me pay the bills... so who cares? As long as I am part of it let them use all the space they want.

 

I only see ads down the right.. Might be due to my location maybe?

 

Let me guess, you think advertising should be free?

 

I agree...without these advertisers I wouldn't be making much money.

 

I'm surprised there were only 10 million sites competing for "airline ticket"

 

Because it isn't such a good keyword, airline ticketS has another 6 million results

 

Adwords? I don't see any.

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=743&application=firefox

Nice clean serps. Makes it impossible to click on your own ads. If I want to see the ads, I open IE.

I turned on the option to number the results like Y, too.

 

I see a client of ours on the first page in the natural SERPS.