When a Brand Query Puts the Brand Fifth: Google’s Pay-to-Play Problem

Read Articleadded Sep 24, 2025
When a Brand Query Puts the Brand Fifth: Google’s Pay-to-Play Problem

Searching for “Midjourney” on Google returned the official site as only the fifth result, overshadowed by ads and lesser alternatives. The author contends this pay-to-play system forces even top products to buy visibility to prevent competitors from leapfrogging them. He argues this reflects a broader decay in Google Search quality and calls for a fix—or an end to it.

Key Points

  • A direct brand search for “Midjourney” surfaced the official site only as the fifth result.
  • Ads and sponsored listings push more relevant, user-intended results down the page.
  • Success on Google now requires both organic strength (backlinks) and paid ads to avoid being outranked.
  • Competitors can pay to appear above the brand users actually seek, distorting relevance.
  • The situation is presented as symptomatic of Google Search’s broader quality decline and misaligned incentives.

Sentiment

The overall sentiment of the discussion is strongly in agreement with the article's central premise that Google Search has declined due to its over-reliance on ads and monetization. Commenters widely share frustrations with the current state of search results, view ads as detrimental to user experience and security, and frequently express a preference for alternative, ad-free search engines. While some acknowledge the complexity of Google's position or report different individual experiences, the dominant tone is one of disappointment and a call for better, user-centric search.

In Agreement

  • Google Search has declined significantly from its original ad-free, pure search ethos, becoming bloated and prioritizing monetization over relevance.
  • Ads frequently displace official or desired organic results, forcing users to scroll past irrelevant content or even deceptive links, making it hard to find legitimate sites or apps.
  • The prevalence of ads is a significant security risk, leading to accidental clicks on scam or phishing sites, and making ad blockers an essential safety measure.
  • Similar ad-driven issues and compromised user experience are observed on other platforms like Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store.
  • The decline is attributed to corporate greed, the pressure for continuous profit growth, and the inherent misalignment of incentives in an ad-supported business model.
  • Many users have switched to or recommend ad-free, subscription-based alternatives like Kagi, DuckDuckGo, or Brave Search, finding them superior for quality and user experience.

Opposed

  • Not all users experience the same ad-heavy results for 'Midjourney' or other searches; display of ads is influenced by geographic location, A/B testing, and user profiles.
  • The article's title 'Everything that's wrong' is an overstatement, as other issues like misleading AI summaries, poor organic result quality, or general UI/UX problems are also significant.
  • The current state of Google Search is an inevitable outcome of market dynamics and capitalism; companies grow, face profit pressure, and monetize through ads, often creating industries like SEO in the process.
  • Google faces inherent challenges in discerning user intent (navigational vs. informational) and resolving keyword ownership (e.g., for non-trademarked terms or multiple entities sharing a name) without becoming overly opinionated.
  • Blaming Google alone misses the larger societal issue of corporations influencing democracy and a lack of regulation to curb corporate greed, which drives such business behaviors.
When a Brand Query Puts the Brand Fifth: Google’s Pay-to-Play Problem