I think this is exactly point I was getting at. Google is giving companies the ability to curate their own results, which is something Facebook (through pages)

I think this is exactly point I was getting at. Google is giving companies the ability to curate their own results, which is something Facebook (through pages) and Twitter (through featured tweets on high-profile social accounts) already allow. Difference is that it's a search, not a dedicated page. I know there are a lot of cynics here, but that's not the same as a banner ad.