crobb305 - 1:47 pm on Sep 14, 2012 (gmt 0)

I have been watching a couple of sites bounce in and out, up and down, for about a week. Most obvious to me, is the continuing proliferation of press releases in the financial sector. Last week, for a competitive phrase, I reported 25% of the top 100, today about 28% (especially page 5+). This includes press releases and Yahoo News. Once you factor in the Youtube videos, we're over 35%. The press releases and Youtube videos are designed to send traffic to websites that aren't ranking well at all. They are supported by some spammy backlinks. I don't understand Google's motive for pushing this crap to the top, in exchange for the established websites that were there before (other than to push people directly to Google's own financial offerings). It's total junk, and they know it.