[BigV]

google returns search results for search terms.

in normal operation, the uppermost "hits" are often paid for advertisements. They usually have a pastel colored background. It's very subtle, and the text looks like the text of the other hits out in the regular internet. for uncareful users, they might be clicked on. this is good for the advertiser because now they have the potential customer at their site. yay capitalism. the location in search results is a HUGE big deal. Higher is better. You, or any other person can "buy" what google calls "adwords".

You could "bid" for having your ad appear when a given search term(s) is submitted to the all-knowing google. So could I. If I bid more than you then my results would appear higher on the page than yours. we could both have active bids, both have active hits, both have our ads appear for the same search term. this is google's genius business model. people pay to have their links/ads appear in the search results from google.

Of course, google returns non commercial hits too. they have a formula more secret than coca cola and kentucky fried chicken combined as to what constitutes a good hit. many people make beaucoup bux by reading the entrails and producing web pages that will rank highly. And, it's a moving target. But it is possible to do, let's face it, SOME hit will be the top hit (non commercial). There's a concept/act called a googlebomb, for example. Back in the day, if you searched for "miserable failure" you'd get George W Bush as the number one result. ha ha. Poor Rick Santorum. folks have figured out ways, sometimes by brute force, to get a search term to land on top.

Now, consider these ingredients: google sells ads/search results for profit. google produces some products, including a browser called "chrome". google has a lot of fanboys with really big brains. the next part is ... speculation.

if the fans all got together and made one of these guerrilla campaigns to cause google's product, browser chrome, to have especially high search rankings, it could be viewed as unfair. Like back in the day when Microsoft bundled internet explorer on computers with windows. they were found to be cheating, using their advantageous position to promote their own product. Google wants to avoid even the appearance of misconduct (there are real, actual, published rules) and so they've *manually demoted* (moved lower, I know you know what demoted means, but in search terms/hits, this is literally true, lower on the results list, and it's the kiss of death) the hits that "lead" to a link for chrome. They don't want to be accused of using their own tool, which is absolutely ubiquitous to promote their other product.

Does this help?