tedster - 6:12 am on Jan 20, 2012 (gmt 0)

Did you read the beginning of Matt's article where explains the kind of complaints they were getting that motivated this new algorithm work?

As we've mentioned previously, we've heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it's difficult to find the actual content, they aren't happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away.

Ads are a monetization method - I don't think we can realistically call them content. We can quibble about it... but we do know what he's saying.