Jenstar - 6:04 pm on Dec 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

There are many flaws to this methodology.

The problem is that those top 3 may have opted out of content, leaving lower paying ads.

You might be checking bids for single "keyword" while AdSense is targeting ads to that page for "keyword keyword2 keyword3" phrase.

Some advertisers who have one of the top slots in search may have set up a lower bid price campaign for those same keywords in content. (ie. bidding $1 for search, but only $0.20 for content).

I don't think AdSense is doomed, since they still pay significantly higher that competitors (except for a couple of niche markets that tend to be higher in fraud, with more advertisers pulling out of content).