jimbeetle - 5:53 pm on Jan 21, 2007 (gmt 0)

I can say conclusively that most people typing in the keyword "jewelry", are looking to buy.

Yeah, and Google knows exactly the same thing, probably in much more detail. That's why it returns mostly sales sites.

But, according to you, if Google throws in one informational result -- one -- for the few folks who aren't looking to buy and you see this as "a cornerstone in Google's strategy of keeping AdWords ctr rates on the increase"? I think that's a pretty long reach. Sound more like G is trying to satisfy the broadest possible user base.

Google has a little knob it can turn (not sure what color this one is), that adjusts the mix of types of sites returned for a query. If as you say the overwhelming majority of searches for "jewelry" are for buying, then it appears that G has this knob set just about right.