This isn't an issue of middlemen, value or the alignment of interests between customer and company. It's an issue of legality. Google operates a legal business

This isn't an issue of middlemen, value or the alignment of interests between customer and company. It's an issue of legality. Google operates a legal business. It sells advertising on a service that it owns. Period. The parking companies in the article are knowingly inducing their "customers" to violate local laws that forbid the buying and selling of on-street public parking. These companies seek to profit from this and as a result are now in legal hot water themselves. As for ReservationHop, I believe restaurants may have legal recourse. California's unfair competition laws are fairly broad and I think an argument could be made that intentionally booking fake reservations for the purpose of advertising and reselling them would constitute an unfair and perhaps even fraudulent business practice.