Google Related Links are something new offered by Google Labs. They represent something of a mixed opportunity for webmasters.
Google now has the capability to generate links relating to any particular search term and personalized for any website. These related links are categorized into news, videos, searches, and web pages and an "ad" unit is displayed with any category that has links relevant to your site.
In theory, this appears a good idea. After all, providing web site visitors with free information and links to relevant sites helps to gain trust and promote your own site, right?
The problem is that you have no control over the sites that will appear in the results. While this is, to an existent, also true with Adsense ads you should know that you will not get paid for serving Related Links on your page regardless of whether they get clicked or not.
Providing competitors with your visitors in exchange for Google Adsense money is one thing but opening the door and directing them to a competitor without taking any gain from it could be suicidal for most webmasters.
There are certainly other ways to provide link to relevant resources and web pages without having to do so for free. And you could probably choose related links better than Google algorithm.
In the FAQ for Google Related Links, the question of whether webmasters get paid for serving these ads has been answered with an unsure "Not at this time". Until payment is forthcoming then webmasters concerned with their Internet marketing efforts would be well advised to consider different services.
More information can be found at the http://www.google.com/relatedlinks website.
In short, my recommendation is: don't use Google Related Links. They only hurt you by costing you visitors without any financial gain.
