This is something that has been bugging me really ever since R/S/E came out, but now especially since I'm getting back into competitive battling on D/P. I'm hoping someone here can either answer this or point me to an explination about it because I've checked Serebii/Psypokes/Smogon/Internet for this and came up with jack ::

Back in G/S/C, it was accepted that if you had a Pokémon (say, Clefable) with a Fire-type move (Flamethrower) that you would give it the Charcoal item to hold, that way the Fire move got boosted to do more damage.
Recently, I've been seeing people attach same-typed items to same-type Pokémon, which confuses me because last I knew, same-types did NOT get the boost from same-type Hold items. What gives? Has the math for Held Items changed? Does Rapidash @ Charcoal get more power out of Fire Blast holding it or something?

What am I missing here guys? :/

it must be different... but y'know, +.2 damage is something that normaly leeds people to stuffs like the Life orb, lefties, that sorta stuff...

charcoals just better now, 1.2 boost instead of 1.1
generally all other same type items suck

the damage modifier is too low for it to only affect 1 type of move. Generally, items like Lefties, Life Orb or Choice items are better.

Agreed, Life Orb for the win.