It would be good if they could also take out the other search pages - I don't need to go through two search engines to get to what I want, but some things that I put into Google just gives me a load of pages that are effectively other pages of search results from others, usually all trying to sell me the item when what I actually want is a specification or a review.

Ah, what you're looking for then is: http://www.givemebackmygoogle.com/

Or perhaps even better, http://www.scroogle.org

Another 'useful' site is http://www.gahooyoogle.com/

So true, why oh why when do I get search results that simply echo my initial search request, and when I click on the result simply links to a site trying to sell me something, that they dont sell anyway. Surely Google can solve this?

hehe, like allhealthnet.com ,now there's a classic. So informative... It's that ever so admirable way to make a buck, the link farm. Or as some call similar webholes the Adsense Ready site.

Yes, those keywords you use when you search are targeted by these noble types, ever so kindly assisting you to generate revenue for them when you click the ads.

And screwing the results for the rest of us....

Oh sure, you can report these to Google and Yahoo when you find one in the same sort of search result that your own website is in....Poor sods that have to sit at that desk, if you thought your spam was bad, those buggers are targeted by the same respectable web creators.

Which, anyway, is a little off the point with regard to Pagerank, a slightly backward second cousin if you will.

Alas Google have created and online environment in which the purchase of links in one of the few remaining measures of how credible a business/site is.... Webmasters are more likely to steal your content these days than to link to your site regardless of how good your resource is....

Its a shame, but plagiarism is becoming more common place than citation - the principle upon which Google was built, which means 'real links' based on merit are becoming harder to come by and those companies with the deepest pockets are able to rise to the top in a flack buy buying links.

More interesting to me is how, while Google is being seen to be actively seeking to stop 'smaller from buying links from other 'smaller sites' sites' – the lower pagerank sites have been hardest hit by this toolbar update - they appear to be turning a blind eye to larger organisation which presumable spend more money with them on Adsence and hence hold greater leverage in the grand scheme of things. It’s a simple case of double standards and protecting advertising revenue at the expense of integrity.

I wonder what agreement TheTimesOnline and Tesco Finance have in place? Both huge companies. The Times is appears to selling links to Tescofinance - 833,000 of them with prefect insurance related anchor text. The placement of these links and selection of anchor text suggests advertising to me but of course I may be wrong.

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geuoxImCBHgj0A1HFLBQx.?p=linkdomain%3Atescofinance.com+site%3Atimesonline.co.uk

As a result they have risen from nowhere in sight to position 3 for car insurance!

However, I bet Matt Cutts and Google will do nothing about this – and if they do, it will be short lived as someone from tesco is likely to pick up the phone to their Google Account Manager and have the matter resolved in a jiffy.

Hey ho – this is life…. Democracy has no place in ranking anymore and it’s the guys with the deepest pockets that will rank for everything worth ranking for… IMO