Google doesn't stop innovating their search engine, and there where others try to follow, Google is not just 1 step ahead, but 10 steps ahead. Their latest innovation, which actually may already be in place for a year or longer, can be found in the patent: "Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data."
A discussion between 2 SEOs, Mr. Ethical and Mr. Links, about link building.
Are we going back in time with Google Adwords Image Ads? Weren't banners supposed to be less effective than text ads? Google doesn't seem to think so as it introduced Image Ads as an additional service in the Google Adwords program.