Here's the best "malicious" reasoning behind this that I could come up with. Consider the following list of _hypothetical_ statements (as I have no research to back it up):
1. Users tend to ignore the small ads on the right (anecdote: I do)
2. Users do notice and click on search results beneath the top query, even when they originally intended to arrive at their exact branded query
3. Search results beneath the top result are for competitors
Solution: Put in huge "ad" to draw attention and also to knock competitors listings to the very bottom of the screen or off the fold completely
If 1-3 hold true, then I could see it making sense competitively to shove those other results down the page.
Edit: aresant pointed out a good article that could explain the intent. Yay! Also, it wasn't my intent to hate on Google, just a thought experiment.
1. Users tend to ignore the small ads on the right (anecdote: I do)
2. Users do notice and click on search results beneath the top query, even when they originally intended to arrive at their exact branded query
3. Search results beneath the top result are for competitors
Solution: Put in huge "ad" to draw attention and also to knock competitors listings to the very bottom of the screen or off the fold completely
If 1-3 hold true, then I could see it making sense competitively to shove those other results down the page.
Edit: aresant pointed out a good article that could explain the intent. Yay! Also, it wasn't my intent to hate on Google, just a thought experiment.