[jfengel]

Google is remarkably effective at handling the scale. It doesn't seem up for handling the sheer army dedicated to misleading it. Especially now that they've been given tools for automating crap generation.

Ironically, Google itself was a key developer of that tech.

If there is any solution it would seem to involve removing the incentive to merely look at your page. That problem seems remarkably stubborn.

[amanaplanacanal]

It "doesn't seem up for handling" it because it profits from showing you those ad laden sites. It's intentional, not incompetence.

[jfengel]

I think that they'd rather show you the right answers, if they can. Those sites will often have exactly the same ads, and they won't make you think about jumping ship to Bing or Kagi. And advertisers will pay more for sites that actually have good reputations.

Search engines are the picks-and-shovels of the Internet gold rush. They profit either way. They want to do it in a way that keeps the gravy train going.

I'm no starry-eyed capitalist. I'm sure that Google would sell their own grandmothers for a few ad clicks. But occasionally the cynical thing to do is actually the right thing.