europeforvisitors - 4:53 pm on Nov 10, 2002 (gmt 0)

...Especially when at the same time that I want to purchase blue widgets, I want to read about which brand of blue widgets provides the best performance for my particular application. I would be rather annoyed having to search two indexes for what used to show up in one.

In that case, it would be in your interest for Google to point you to an editorial site that carries advertising or affiliate links--e.g., an "information" site as opposed to an "e-commerce" site or (even less useful) a cookie-cutter affiliate site that merely provides a paragraph or two of boilerplate catalog copy and a link to bluewidgets.com.

Also, you wouldn't necessarily have to search two indexes. If Google merely gave greater weight to "information" sites, you'd still be able to find e-commerce sites (or even affiliate sites) about blue widgets. You just wouldn't find them dominating the top 10 or 20 results on a search for "blue widgets" as opposed to a search for "buy blue widgets" or "blue widgets stores."

For that matter, since Google indexes pages instead of sites, it's conceivable that you might find a commercial Web site's pages (or an affiliate site's pages) in the top 10. But those pages would be information pages--such as "Finding the right swimsuit for your figure" at Land's End or "The Canoe Selection Guide" at a john-does-canoes.com) instead of sell pages for bathing suits or canoes.