Search For Sale

In response to yesterday’s Buying Search Traffic, Russell Beattie (who works for Yahoo) writes: Search is already determined by who pays the most for it! Everywhere you see a search box with a Google logo, be sure that there's a competitor out there that will pay for the same spot—because search advertising is so monetizable. Google is everywhere because they're paying for it. Wow, I had no idea. Now, this is just one person’s voice, but I’m running it because I think Russell is probably in a position to know, and is honest in my experience. Anyone else want to confirm or refute? [Ah, Om Malik was on the story back in September.]