Replying to Why is the navigation bar on top of an ad?

I'm really impressed by the new layout; it looks great and everything works great too, with one exception.

Why is the navigation bar on top of an ad?

The rest of NS is a contiguous functional entity and then you went and stranded the navigation bar from the rest. The only reason I can think of for the ad to be in that position is that it somehow increases the space's value. Basically, switch the position of the top ad and the navigation bar... leave the search bar on top if it'll make advertisers feel like they're getting views.