[iamjoshua]

How is it a conflict of interest? When a company that was founded on the idea of an algorithm that delivers the best content for a search instead starts displaying their own properties (youtube, maps, reviews etc)... well that's a portal now, not a search engine. Conflict.

[jrockway]

I don't understand how it's a conflict of interest. OK, they now create content in addition to searching other people's content. The goal of Google is to "organize the world's information", not to be an independent source of search results. They are a company who gets money when you use their website. Producing content for your visitors is not a "conflict of interest", because Google has never claimed to be acting in any interest other than making money.

The only interest that would conflict with Google's is one that made people stop using their website.