When it first came available you could set it to faster, but eventually they stopped this option. I think it requires a huge amount of pages indexed and maybe a high rate of change to the content, like a news site, to be given the faster option.
After 7 days of being indexed I have the faster option but there is an expiration. 90 days i think. but i don't know what's the benefit of having a faster crawl rate
Just being indexed sooner. I think it allows a fighting chance to be found by the public and then you're back to normal. Sort of like when new pages get that boost in the SERPs, but then could drop back down. I think it's Google's way of being nice to the little guy.
mine is normal too. the faster option is locked for me. i think it's related with the traffic that googlebot downloads from your web site
Mine "faster" option is active few months since I've created the sites and I use it. However, googlebot is not that active as yahooslurp.
I have Faster option enabled and it automatically switches back to normal after 3 months. But i can log back into the account and again set it to faster for another 3 months. I have been using faster option for last 6 months or so. I dont know how it prolly helps but my pages gets indexed within seconds. If i post a new article, its found in google within 2-3 mins.