I had been reading a email I have got through on how their are including opther factors in the ranking algo, here one that I found interesting:

The patent also discusses assigning higher scores to those pages that
have higher click-thru rates on their ads. Obviously, the easiest way
for them to track this is if you're running AdSense on your site. (Who
knows, maybe this whole patent was just a devious attempt by Google to
convince more people to put AdSense ads on their pages?)

So if your webpage has a higher click through in adsense this could effect your ranking. This doesn't make much sense to me, how would the better the ads they provide suggest a more relevant result. Or could it just be a way of making more money.

I think it is worrying.

I have a site where I want people to learn about B12.

I was going to use adsense because I need money, desperately.

BUT, I mostly want people to learn about B12, not get distracted by ads.

So far I haven't used adsense.

But what I think the email you posted means, is that only commercial sites would get top billing, with ads for the big guys....

This doesn't make much sense to me,

Nor it does make to me

Or could it just be a way of making more money.

Probably

I asked Google Support a similar question the other day. They say adsense doesn't affect google ranking, definitely.

Littlewhite, they will never tell you the truth, don't be so naive. What happens inside G is a big mystery, there is no proof of that adsense affects SE rank, but also no proof that it doesn't. From the G's point of view it would be reasonable to give good publishers higher exposure.