Why Search Engines Must Continue to Be Referees
"There are potentially rough seas ahead, then, for site owners who have in the past relied heavily on search engines. The changing environment threatens site owners with a double whammy: not only will site owners increasingly have to pay for listings and placement in or near search results, but the second special advantage of search engines – their perceived legitimacy from the end user’s standpoint – may be jeopardized.
However, this is not a cut-and-dried situation. In the first place, spider engines like Google will continue to drive a lot of traffic through their main (non-paid) listings, and will continue to be trusted by end users for their ability to point to relevant resources. That’s important for those millions of users who still see the spirit of the Internet as resource first, shopping mall second."
Andrew Goodman has more to come, and invoking "Aristotle, Hobbes, and Rousseau" makes it even more promising!