poster_boy - 6:13 pm on Dec 24, 2008 (gmt 0)

I will go with the theory that the people who managed the Adwords accounts are long since laid-off.

To address your point on lay-offs, I can't think of a stronger market for search engine marketers then right now. (Which is good for all of us on this message board!) Of the several companies that I know that went through lay-offs this year, the SEM departments were absolutely untouched. If marketing depts. are to focus their spend towards measurable or higher ROI inventory, they will pull money from almost any other channel (display, branding, offline) to focus as much as possible in SEM and SEO.