That is definitely true about search. Google ruined it, like they ruin most things. The more hand-curated style of the old Yahoo was far superior. Yes, Google was superior in search in the short-term, but their automated algorithms came with the inevitable attachment of the future of gaming their algorithms. The modus operandi of Google is to provide a highly-centralized automated service that at first appears superi…
Any designer of marketplaces, search, social anything, laws and regulations, etc needs to remember that principle. Any system will be exploited for its edge cases and emergent behaviors if there is any profit of any kind (even just attention or lulz) in doing so.