[bazonker]

Not sure about the facts underlying the analysis. In my search results (and it's important to remember that it's possible you get different results than another user, due to launch experiments and trials) the ads do not have icons. They say "Ad" in bold text. The "organics" results have icons.

[mthoms]

But notice how the "Ad" text is specifically formatted (and placed) to resemble a favicon? They're blatantly trying to make the ads and organic results appear uniform to someone quickly scanning the page.

As a user, I want the ads more easily distinguishable, not less.

[peterangular]

100% - it's a dark pattern and you know exactly why they're doing it: cash money from advertisers.

The internet is slowly being turned into a corporate power grab and it's only getting worse YOY =|

[hokkos]

Fortunately in french "Annonce" is longer than "Ad" and doesn't look like a favicon ! Maybe they will change it to "Pub".

[cotillion]

This trick is what caused me to click and Ad for the first time in forever. If the icons happen to be dark its easy to ignore the 'Ad' text. Maybe its time to supply a complaint. I doubt this is legal in Sweden.

[reroute1]

Yes I see the same, it's really easy to tell what is an ad and what isn't...

[city41]

The distinction between the two has certainly gone down though (by quite a bit IMO). This feels like boiling a frog.

[reroute1]

I guess it depends on the user. I can't really put myself in the mindset of someone else, but I am pretty sure I would never accidentally click an ad and not realize it. Maybe others who don't pay attention to this kind of thing might be affected though.

[nicpottier]

Agree, ads seem clearer than ever to me, the big bold "Ad" is more distinct to me than the previous treatment.

[duckmysick]

To me, the clearest Google ads had colored background and text "Sponsored Link" on the side.