Truth 54. Are organic search results an endangered species?

It’s long been assumed as true among many web users that the organic results served up by the search engines’ algorithms are more relevant to most users’ queries than the paid results. This perception has largely been manufactured by the search engines themselves, each of which seeks to endear itself to users as an “honest broker” whose neutral algorithms will unerringly separate the wheat from the chaff. Although the idea that organic results are “pure” is an inherently appealing one; in actuality the situation is much more complicated and, in many instances, paid listings actually provide better, more useful results than organic ones.

The first instance in which paid listings ...

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