almighty_monkey - 2:26 pm on Mar 17, 2011 (gmt 0)

I think the claim that Google results are natural based on algorithms is pretty much debunked. Google has stated that they hand manipulate results and that includes placing their own links at the top of SERPS. This will be further weight to the government charges of a monopoly that is abusing its position.

Thing is, they can be telling the truth with this and still have an unfair advantage.

If the guys who wrote the algo were just down the hall, you can bet I'd be the top of every SERP I wanted as well. How on earth do you compete with that? They don't need to bother building an unfair advantage to the algo. The fact that they know it is advantage enough.

If there's one thing that is blatently off, its when Google run adwords campaigns for their own services. Even if they don't manipulate it, its not like it costs them anything. How are you supposed to compete with a campaign that has infinate money/