Google "Comparison" Units Get New Look; Change Highlights Paid Inclusion In Some Vertical Search Areas [Search Engine Land]

Boundary-blurring in the Googleplex

“Even though paid inclusion is fairly commonplace in the vertical space, it still feels somewhat surprising for Google to be doing it. Having a search tool for financial products using paid inclusion even goes directly against what Google’s founders said they disliked back in 2004, as part of the IPO filing’s “Don’t Be Evil” section:

Google users trust our systems to help them with important decisions: medical, financial and many others. Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating.

It makes me wonder if future Google vertical search products will go down this route. I’ll be following-up more with Google about this in the near future.”

Google "Comparison" Units Get New Look; Change Highlights Paid Inclusion In Some Vertical Search Areas