Are Sponsored links closer?

Links in search query

[Timetraveler]

I was just curious, but did google recently put the sponsored links closer to the organic results? It seems like the adwords are much further to the left...

[RhinoFish]

yep, some experimenting going on, don't think it's been discussed here, but i saw the story here:

webpronews.com/topnews/2009/08/13/google-does-some-adwords-experimenting

[Timetraveler]

I think it's a good idea by them. Personally I don't ever look at them because I'm in a niche where they're not allowed but usually I'm blind to them, but it definitely caught my eye a couple weeks ago.

[LucidSW]

This is the first I hear of this. I thought the ads were closer to the organics recently but thought it was just my imagination or some change in my browser. I too think it's a good move as it might increase click rates.

[shorebreak]

They started testing this August 5th on Firefox, but as of August 12th they rolled it out into production. Since then CTR is - as would be expected - up. Reprise Media puts the increase [searchviews.com] at 14.5% (meaning a CTR of 1% becomes 1.145%, for example).

[brotherhood of LAN]

Been seeing this on firefox, makes sense.

On a 1920 X 1080 resolution, previously the adwords were as far away as possible on the right, and quite a distance away from where my mouse pointer would be.

Added: related thread [webmasterworld.com]