Sgt_Kickaxe - 5:55 am on Apr 13, 2012 (gmt 0)

One thing that’s important to us is the distinction between advertising and pure search results. We make it clear when something is paid for. Our advertising is off to the side and in a couple of slots across the top. ~ Larry Page

And yet there is an algorithm that punishes publishers who show similar excess ads or 'ads across the top'.

At Google, the search results cannot be bought or paid for. ~ Larry Page

That's misleading given that the ad positions Google DOES sell are more prominent than natural results.

Google revenues seem to have matched big brand traffic trends this year(ebay's keyword stuffed user generated content is up a similar percentage in traffic for example) and that doesn't bode well for small and medium publishers, or for Google who's product becomes more like the yellow pages, imo.

Remember the days when you went to Google to find cool new sites? Now when you go you find the sites you already know about so you actually save time by going directly to them. If Google doesn't change soon I hope another search company starts out and refuses to show big brand sites at all, you can always pick up the yellow pages to find those, now that would be seriously cool.