I'm surprised nobody has been talking about the fact that muddying the distinction between ads and organic results is illegal. Google, Amazon, and others have been moving this way for a while, despite the FTC sending a warning a few years ago: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2013/06/...
Wow. I actually didn't know that there was any law or regulation that even in theory could make Google do this at least in the USA.
But then again, this is the same FTC that has proven unable for decades to rein in the MLM industry, whose blatant scamminess makes Google look like a Boy Scout. So I am over here not holding my breath at all that they will ever draw a line. Google will just keep making that "Ad" label smaller and smaller and fainter and fainter, and the FTC will do nothing other than maybe extracting a tiny fine in a settlement every 10 years or something.
