superclown2 - 10:08 pm on Aug 6, 2012 (gmt 0)

The obsession with brand or authority isn't just a Google thing, it's a people thing.

Most people are sheep and sheep will go where they are led until another 'leader' offering better grazing comes along.

If Google continues to take the easy way out and continues to lead them to brands then that is where they will graze comfortably, unaware that there is no nutrition in what they are consuming. Eventually they will wither away.

If Google wants a long term business then they will have to get away from this easy fix, there are other intelligent, highly motivated people out there working on ways of taking their business from them and things change fast on the Internet.

Perhaps they could offer more than one (non monetized, and therefore hopefully impartial) algo choice? One with the current brand oriented algo and one concentrating on information sites would be a start. They would benefit from a higher number of searches as well as closing a path that a potential rival could use, and those of us who wish to could perhaps find out what these products or services are all about instead of facing a long list of better known companies that give us the same plain vanilla information about something they don't even produce or sell themselves.

Google is the market leader. It must show leadership if it wishes to survive and prosper long term.