I noticed today that there are no paid ads showing at the top of the page highlighted in blue.
Also, not every search will have an ad, or ads, in the top spots.
Even the very same search done at different times will sometimes have ads at the top - and sometimes not.
It all depends on whether or not there are any (approved) ads which have met the additional performance standard to be sent 'Up North'.
AWA
Ok. Figured it out! When I go into preferences for google, if I use "Moderate Filtering" the blue ads up top vanish, and "More Sponsored Links" at the bottom disapeers.
Try it out and see if you get the same results. And if this is a 'rule' I wonder why this changes for "Moderate Filtering"?
A very interesting observation, metakomm - which I'll pass on. That's a new one on me.
AWA