I wonder if they're getting cash kickbacks from established corporate media outlets for pushing their material to the top of the search results. That would actually be less creepy than if its being done as some kind of information manipulation program.

It's high time Google and other search engines were forced to expose the inner workings of their ranking algorithms to the public, particularly now that they have near-monopoly power in the sector. People should also be able to adjust the dials on the algorithm themselves.