> imo there is absolutely nothing wrong with the conflict of interest, pretending it doesnt exist however suggests either dishonesty or a special kind of stupid

> imo there is absolutely nothing wrong with the conflict of interest, pretending it doesnt exist however suggests either dishonesty or a special kind of stupidity Right, in principle I don't strongly disagree with you. Certainly in the short term the intelectual dishonesty bothers me more than making money by bumping up results. But whether that is a real issue or not, depends on how relevant Google is in our society. If there's alternatives, people can try them. If there's no alternatives, having the power to control the results to benefit yourself is maybe too much power concentrated in too few hands. It's unclear to me where we stand right now. I haven't used Google search in many years (DDG), but I'm aware they're hugely influential to basically everyone else.