[icebraining]

I wonder why I don't get any ads above the "Related searches..." at all when I use the same query. I do use https://encrypted.google.com/ instead of plain google.com, maybe that affects the ads?

In fact, I've just searched for a bunch of queries that I assume would have plenty of bidders (NFL, football, harry potter, ipad) and none of them had any ads box.

[adgar]

I hate to be that guy, but are you sure you don't have adblock on? I'm logged in, tried encrypted.google.com, and saw the expected ad results for all of those queries.

[icebraining]

It's OK, but I don't use Adblock. I do use NoScript, but all the domains for Google Search are whitelisted.