I have my screen set to 1280 x 1024 resolution. When viewing the SERPs, Google chops off the titles and shorten the text to make it fit on the left hand side of the screen. But for people like me who have higher screen resolutions, Adwords gets pushed all the way to the right, separated by a large white space, not being very visible.
If they simply made the search portion a “fixed” width, and the Adwords directly to the right of it, it would be more visible for people with larger screen resolutions, and bound to increase click throughs.
Hopefully someone at G is listening to this.. If it works out, and there is a great increase in profits, be sure to email me a check :)
Besides, why would you want the ads to be shown more prominently? I was reading an article an office mate forwarded me about SEO stuff, and it said that some SEO firm had discovered that conversion rates were MUCH better on natural listings versus PPC listings, across the board.
If that's the case, you'd also be costing yourself a lot of money and sales if Google took you up on this.
As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
It makes perfect sense. We all know to ignore bright animated 'banner ads' and click on the SERPs. If you want higher clickthroughs, you make the ads look like SERPs. The nice, subtle Category and News links would be great spots for PPC adverts.
<added>Marcos is more observant than me. "Sponsored Link" Colors changing [webmasterworld.com]
