tedster - 8:58 pm on Aug 22, 2012 (gmt 0)

@Tedster - So you don't share a hunch that Google is giving special treatment to some verticals.

As I see it, adult queries have clearly been given special treatment for many years - that area may well have been the first. I certainly do think there's specialized attention to certain query phrases in certain niches. That special treatment probably involves automated algorithms these days, plus a lot more human review of the SERPs generated by proposed changes to the algorithm.