Todd, this may be a stupid question since the ads are labeled "ads by Google" but do you have anything to do with the links at the top of the page? There's been a few products listed up there that interest me, but I'm hesitant to purchase them unless someone (like yourself) is willing to vouch for their validity.
No, the ads benefit Invisionfree, who host our temporary board. I've been paying $10 a week to keep them off our board, but as our traffic increases, that $10 is burned up a little quicker and the ads come back. All the more reason to get moving to our own server.