The fact that you can request a google employee in a position to help you out to do so displays enormous leverage.
Imagine a business in Germany, Vietnam, or even.. Texas having to do the same? It's pretty much impossible. This is what happens to everyone else out there.
Which is what the parent is referring to when he says that google results aren't as neutral as they claim to be. They clearly favored someone with leverage in this instance.
But this is the only instance that we know of. So far.
Although I understand your concerns, this is just how the world works. If you know the president of the United States personally, there's a good chance he might spend a little of his good will smoothing out some bureaucratic processes for you. Nothing illegal or abusive, just the president asking official this-and-that why process so-and-so is taking so long for your company.
It's not a question of having to do the same, it just means that knowing a Google employee with some magic power is a valuable asset.
But yes, if you're a company that doesn't have this asset and you make a stupid mistake like Rap Genius did your site might be off Google for a month or two, possibly destroying your business.
I still don't follow how that makes Google not neutral in any significant way.
Okay, I see why you were not able to follow the problem.
>> stupid mistake like Rap Genius did your site might be off Google for a month or two, possibly destroying your business.
Sometimes businesses get wrongly blacklisted. Yes, it happens. They do get destroyed because of this, people do lose homes and jobs over this.
But this isn't because Google takes a month or two to sort this kind of thing out (a month or two is also not really acceptable - too long - given the impact Google has on a business). It's because experience shows that once you are on the wrong side of the big G, there's pretty much nothing you can do to get on the right side. It's no longer a question of a month or two, it's about registering a new domain, and starting from scratch. Sometimes you have to do this even when you didn't do anything wrong. This applies to almost every Google service whether it's Search, Adsense, Gmail, or anything else.
But Rap Genius definitely did something wrong. It was obvious for everyone to see. Yet, they managed to follow the 'recommendations' and get back in the game pretty quick. We know that this is probably because of connections because every business out there that gets blacklisted by Google will make sure that they are 'regulation-compliant' ASAP. Yet, many of them never manage to make it back and those that do take years at times.
Yes, knowing the US President helps, but that's provided you can get your work done without knowing him as well, in a reasonable time frame. Especially when it may make the difference between running a thriving business and being homeless.
Imagine a business in Germany, Vietnam, or even.. Texas having to do the same? It's pretty much impossible. This is what happens to everyone else out there.
Which is what the parent is referring to when he says that google results aren't as neutral as they claim to be. They clearly favored someone with leverage in this instance.
But this is the only instance that we know of. So far.