I'm not going to defend the overall conspiracy here but I totally buy into the theory that Google would prefer a big brand ranking over several small businesses...

The logic in my mind is -- Google wants the rankings to be unequivocally trustworthy, e.g., if I'm searching for an espresso machine, would I trust a small ecommerce shop where the experience could be terrible or do we just throw an Amazon or Bed Bath and Beyond result at the top because those are vetted companies.

Sure, the little guy has to grind to get a better ranking and free traffic, but it should in the long term encourage better behavior by companies as they attempt to earn that trust.

http://i.imgur.com/eBtzYic.png see any organic search results there?

Yes --

http://i.imgur.com/vFwD9xr.png

Ads depend on your location etc. We have had a discussion about this same example before and plenty of people got similar results: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6533287 e.g. http://i.imgur.com/mhJhc5W.png and http://i.imgur.com/2iFv7Yf.png

And for what it's worth, this is the result I got just now in the UK: http://i.imgur.com/YHXngwR.png

You are a showing a handpicked example which is disingenuous and not representative of real user experience. You decided to include a one-time cookie message that pushes down the content and not include the actual search results which are further down the page. FWIW the visitor that used this query got a clear answer to what bitcoin is and I'm pretty sure that any of the "small businesses" that are advertising in that spot are not deserving to be the first result for that query anyway so no conspiracy here.

It could be because the plus500.co.uk is manifestly UK (and people saying otherwise are probably based in the US).

Yes, it's just an example. I'm sure there are other terms that get more ads in the US than the UK. The point isn't this exact search term, it's that there are combinations of searches+locations that return pages where the entire of the visible page is filled with ads or google content and you have to scroll to see any real results at all.

Interestingly I (also UK) got the same, except missing the ad about mining. Isn't this tailoring (presumably with some basis in the users' behaviour) a substantial part of what is increasing their revenues (thus share price)?

Try disabling the Ad Blocker.

How did you get so many ads? Without adblock I see this: http://i.imgur.com/Djdz2wQ.png

It looks like a fake.

Or he has malware that inserts ads into places trying to look legit. I'm surprised at how common that is. :(

this bullshit example gets trotted out every time somebody tries to prove this point, but it never gets any more relevant.

yes, google shows a lot of ads for a vague, contextless search query. but nobody ever searches for anything so vague unless they're trying to prove how google search results are going down the toilet. if you search for the name of a category of information, it's impossible to know what aspect is relevant to you and you're either going to get ads or irrelevant results, and google has chosen to serve ads instead of irrelevant results..

try searching for bitcoin mining, bitcoin exchange, etc, and you'll see relevant results.

Try this one:

flights from los angeles to las vegas

Not sure if the organic results are relevant, because I can't see any.

Just to show that sharkweek's reply isn't an outlier, here is the same search with adblock turned off, from a US address.

http://i.imgur.com/Ed0UYER.png

I see the same for that particular query, but have seen result pages that fit the mix of the original screenshot.

me too! (California Bay Area) http://i.imgur.com/yaEh1xY.png

This is kinda fun. I'd like a website that showed screenshots of popular search-results on Google from across the world.

I get the same--but with ad blockers on

Google's profile of you probably adjusts the number of ad results that show up. If so, then if you use the service anonymously, you'd probably get the whole shebang.

Data straight from Google's mouth. Their Google properties ad clicks increased by 22%, an astounding number when Adsense stayed flat. All ads above fold is a great steroid shot but horrible long term strategy.