tedster - 5:17 am on Oct 13, 2011 (gmt 0)

The way Google sees it, their own properties are not part of the organic results. Google Places are definitely not part of the organic rankings.

YouTube results (or other video results, images, news. etc) are part of Universal Search. Those verticals get inserted into the organic results, yes - but there are still 10 organic results on Page One. With the Universal Results added, it pushes the Page One total to 12 or 13 "listings" at times.

So yes, Google is using SERP real estate to promote their own properties - but there are still 10 organic rankings on the page. And the success of those rankings is not measured by economics.