irishsolar - 12:16 pm on Apr 17, 2012 (gmt 0)

@jkdt0077 This is a genuine trend. I kid you not.

As for Google being blatant all I can say is....look at the SERPs.

Page 1 results:

*Google places.
*Youtube (owned by Google & full of adverts now).
*Sites with Google Profile picture & Google Circle information.
*ABOVE the fold adverts on their own search results (isn't that a panda penalty issue for websites?)

Google are totally blatant because they are getting away with it.

However, we can only hope something good comes from the 2 European Regulator complaints standing against them from Trip Advisor and Expedia for uncompetitive behaviour. Its time more big companies stood up and pointed the finger at Google's behaviour.

The several sites that I was referring to are in two different niches and have severe black hat linking profiles. They seem to always know the tricks that work and this just looks like another one. There is nothing else different on their sites that I can see.

I asked previously if anyone had tried sticking some adsense above the fold to see if it would help because I had started noticing this trend. Its getting worse.

YES I am angry at Google and YES I think they are biased and completely anti-competitive in their algo but I am making a genuine point about this adsense.