When did adwords switch to the LHS?

[cliffski]

Is this a recent change or have I only just noticed? The first result of a goole search now seems to be a paid adwords ad. I'm sure they used to be confined to the right hand side. Google always made it clear that it gave unbiased, unpaid search results with some ads on the right hand side, but this has blurred now. IS it just me that sees this as a major and bad development?
Firstly it means more expense for some advertisers, because if you have a situation where your site returns the top search result, but also has an adword, then rather than getting the free click, you are now paying for it.
Secondly, does this not mean that the top search result is effectively up for sale? this wil drastically reduce the effectiveness of the search surely?
Am I missing something here? is this only happening on some searches, or in some countries? I'm suprised I havent seen it discussed or blogged? Am I delusional? :D

[Fost]

It's been like that for ages (at least more than a year, but I'm not sure beyond that), but if you've already seen that as a result once, it won't come up again.

[Jack Norton]

You mean sponsored results? They're there since 2-3 years I think... :D

[cliffski]

I'm not very observant :D

[Pyabo]

They should always have a different (non-white) background color. I just tune them out.

[Teq]

The links are coloured so I don't personally think its a problem, though it certainly depends on the level of experience a user has...