[Terr_]

At the risk of stating the obvious: We've ample evidence for this insidious effect with ~25 years of Google changes, as clear ads become hidden ads, separation becomes deliberate clutter, and actionable results get degraded into interaction-bait.

Not the source I wanted to recall/find, but a timeline with screenshots:

https://www.howtogeek.com/how-google-search-results-have-cha...

[fnoef]

Kind of ironic that an article that criticizes Google turning into an ad machine opens up with a “we have noticed you have an ad blocker installed” whole page pop-up

[ndiddy]

You can get rid of most of those by enabling the "EasyList – Annoyances" filter in ublock.

[bombcar]

One thing that was an eye-opener (to me) is just HOW MANY people that I'd put quite high on the intelligence/worldy knowledge graph had ZERO inclination or propensity to even notice or CARE about the bright red AD box around something on a search result.

Made me realize that advertising will always rank somewhere below prostitution (at least there you ARE paying to get screwed).