Ask Steve

When you search Google for any word often you will see two columns of information.  These listing come from two seperate places.  The main results which make up the left hand column are the results that Google has found from the stored information on the words you are searching.  The right hand column are ads that have been purchased.  Google does require these ads to still be relevant to the word(s) you searched.  However, unlike the main search results where the listing are in order of their relevance to your search, the order the ads appear is based on how much the person is willing to pay for the ad.  Each time one of these links are clicked on the company that has purchased the ad pays a small amount for this click.  These links can be very good resources especially when you are looking for the best place to buy a particular item.  On the other hand if you are looking for information, particularly free information, you will most of the time have better results from the main search results