In my view, Google's problem is that "the algorithm" equates popularity with goodness. The more links Google finds on the net to any page in particular, the better (higher in the search results) Google ranks that page.

However, we know that in fact, the more popular something is, the more likely it is to be middle of the road, not special, not best of class. It may, however, be shocking, some variety of LOLcat, or prankish. In this way, in my opinion at least, Google is an enormous force driving netizens towards mediocrity — and worse.

I know that in my area of expertise, Google's search results are really not impressive. Instead of knowledge about the subject, Google returns innumerable blog posts written by people who know little to nothing about the subject matter — a good deal of which is outright wrong.

I don't have a solution outside of an expert-moderated search (and that's very hard); I'm simply observing that Google's intent to "do no evil" is compromised right out the door by the very nature of the algorithm they're using.