Placing adds at the top of the search results. It's basically saying hey just FYI you may be interested in this add vs the adverts to the right which are clearly adds and generally less related to your search.
Ah. Well, I can scroll down. But it does reminds me of complaints about the shades of yellow used. It is #FFF8E7 BTW. On some laptop computers, it does look more whitish the more you tilt the screen to the front. As for why, read Douglas Bowman's infamous post about why he quit Google for clues.
Well, I can scroll down.
So scroll down. who cares. Most people don't scroll down and probably most don't know that they clicked on ads.