econman - 9:50 pm on Aug 9, 2007 (gmt 0)

It appears to me that you will be able to buy your way to the top of the page provided you both bid high enough AND meet their quality control standards.

So, money alone won't get you to the top of the page, but now it will be easier for advertisers that do meet those quality standards to get placement on the top of the page.

It sounds like this will only affect advertisers who are already at the top of the set of ads appearing to the right of the non-paid SERPs, but their ads are not placed above the non-paid SERPs.