What am I looking for?

Edit: Apparently "quietly" in some search strings (Not just "Apple", "Insurance", for example, behaves similarly) removes the top yellow ad box, as well as the side map. I'm not sure there's any significance to this, as I think it's the result of the word having a tendency to bring up news results ("quietly" probably appears more in news articles than in generic content), which seem to take higher priority than the ad box/side info. It doesn't work, for example, in "Plumber" vs "Plumber quietly".

It does that if you Google "Google quietly" or even just "quietly". It has nothing to do with Apple.

Edit: Sorry. You should notice that the top ads and the crap on the right is missing.

The point is: searching for "Company X quietly" is a good way to find out about news burying. It's especially relevant for Apple: they make big product announcements very rarely, and when they do they typically update a wide range of less-important products. I don't think they're burying the news per se, but you can cut through and directly find out what happened that wasn't announced loudly. It's a useful trick.

If the missing ads and side bars is really what your post is alluding to, then googling for "Apple forcibly" http://www.google.com/search?q=Apple+forcibly also gives you the same result.

I'm not sure the submission's point was to showcase disappearing ad boxes; I think it was commentary on the headlines, something about how creative web reporters are.

There seem to be two major stories. One about dropping macbook pro 17 inch and another about the ipad smart case. What am i missing here?

Apple removes claim Macs are safer than PCs from website following months of negative headlines.

"Speak quietly and carry a big stick", indeed.