It bothers me that somebody went ahead and did this. Did they think before they acted? Did they work through what this means to real people of all types? I for one have diminishing respect for the people behind this. I think we need to think more about splitting the Internet in different pieces. ;-) Things like this, and the increasing failure of search might say that there's big chunks that I might never want to see again!

This looks pretty inevitable. Two aspects come to mind: 1) It's an algorithm not human thought that's at work here. That gives an arms-race, the dark-part-of-SEO will catch up even if they started out pretty dumb. 2) Google makes it's money from adverts. A site that has a lot of adverts is working for Google. I really can't imagine them stamping on such sites like they're bugs. For me some of them are just that bugs, so we have a disconnect! In the absence of a published algorithm (even if it needs updating daily or more often) this sort of suspicion can't be resolved. Human judged content (DMOZ anyone!) looks like an answer. Many times I look at what "social" delivers I shudder. A great average of everybody, it seems to me, is not the answer. Maybe the web just needs to fracture. Personal control over how your own search works, sharing data with people who's opinions you respect, sites that work your way, less rubbish, less time waste, more productivity. We could end up with different worlds, as sketched in some SciFi books for a long time. Those who live on the web, consuming, following, never creating. Those who disconnect, think for themselves enough that they deliver new and valuable work. The web has altered our lives. It's time those who care get back into the loop. Control your web so that your life is yours, not a side-effect of a cacaphony of "important" web companies.