Originally posted by arkyt
I have stated since the first sight of “Florida” SERPs that this is in fact a commercial “FILTER” – You will not change my mind – least not yet. Clearly connected to “competitive terms”
I’d call it more of a “stop gaming me” filter. It just turns out that the more “competitive terms” have been ruled by those who know what’s going on. It’s always been that way with every search engine. lol… I used to love hearing news stories and then jumping to the top of Alta Vista 3 days later for related searches. 
They just switched the game up. That’s why it seems like a commercial filter. Previously ranking sites aren’t dead. They just need new strategies.
Little changed in the non-commercial areas because nobody cares enough to optimize / game them for those terms.
Believe me… I won’t buy adwords as a result of feeling dogged by Google. I’ll go pay for inktomi PFI or other advertising. It doesn’t make sense for them to alienate me (alienating the average good content generating webmaster that pays for stuff when he needs to.)
The results are getting crappier, though, and they’ll have to do something about that to keep the searchers. Go Ink.