Some thoughts on Google

Every good blogger should have an opinion on Google, and I do...and it's not all bad! On the one hand I LOVE Google, they set out to be the best search engine - and there is no question that they are exactly that. However Google are a lot of other things, and most of them are good: Google Maps, Google Groups, Google Sites, Google Mail, Google Docs - it's all great stuff, and largely free which is no bad thing.
I especially love Google Adsense which gives me a bit of spare cash in my pocket, but here's the thing... because (via Google search) Google controls the internet, I have a problem with some of the hypocrisy... How come it is fine for me to advertise with Google Adwords, and make money with Google Adsense, but if Google discover that you have paid someone else to promote your site, or find that you have charged someone for a blog-post... they manipulate rankings in an attempt to reduce your earning potential?
I understand their desire to keep the search results 'organic', but I have to take issue with some of the apparent duality of their moral high-ground. If you want 'pure' search results, why would you put paid adverts right at the top of the results? On the other hand, if you feel that the paid results are legitimate (I happen to think they are OK) - what gives you the right to manipulate the rankings of sites that sell their own advertising space? If advertising is bad, why do it? If it is good, why punish others who do it?
The truth is that it just makes people more resourceful, in fact better at what they do when it comes to being paid for advertising. Although it is not possible to make as much through paid blogging now than when it was at it's peak, it is still possible to make a nice little second income, and I am sure that if you 'went at it' full pelt, you could actually do very well indeed despite Google's best efforts to hold you back...