> But what would happen if Google just removed them all from the indexes for a month or so. I for one would be giggling hysterically for quite a while :)
I, for one, would be taken aback if Google started actively playing King-maker. It's sad enough that one company has the ability to do what you say, but to actively flaunt that ability would cause me to search for another search engine of choice, and hopefully I'm not alone.
Besides, playing games with index-censoring would open up space for competitors (competing on the basis of not censoring, while hopefully having comparable result quality), which is not exactly in Google's best interest.
It's effectively what the AP is asking though, or at least what they're insinuating that they're asking. Either to de-list, or to have Google list and index based on their stated (or paid, or bought) priorities. I wouldn't ever expect/want Google to actually just go for it, but if they did just flip the switch on the first bit, the results would be fairly amazing for that month. Google News would become even shittier than it is for that month, too.
I, for one, would be taken aback if Google started actively playing King-maker. It's sad enough that one company has the ability to do what you say, but to actively flaunt that ability would cause me to search for another search engine of choice, and hopefully I'm not alone.
Besides, playing games with index-censoring would open up space for competitors (competing on the basis of not censoring, while hopefully having comparable result quality), which is not exactly in Google's best interest.