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by npx13 1942 days ago
Without paid links, neither Google nor Facebook would exist. A Google ad is a paid link. The only difference in this case is that Google is the one getting paid. Ditto for Facebook. Both have become much more agressive in recent years in making sure that any clicks off their platforms are being paid for. Organic search no longer really exists for any search that can be monetised by Google, especially on mobile and some Governments are waking up to this.
1 comments

There is a difference between advertisement and mandated government legislation that forces businesses to pay for links. Google still uses organic search, it simply places clearly marked ads in obvious places. If they embedded search results with hidden ads, that would be another story,