"But Brin says he isn't worried: "When somebody searches for 'cancer,' should you put up the site that paid you or the site that has better information?" Brin is betting better information will win the day. "
Sad that the answer now is 'both', which to un-savvy Internet users sometimes means the paid placement is the one they see first and think Google is serving as the top ranking site.
Whether the distinction in the UI is clear or not depends on how much experience you have with it. For me and presumably you, who have been using Google dozens of times a day for ten years, it's crystal-clear. For my neighbors who go to the locutorio down the street to use the internet because they don't have computers, it's not clear at all, according to some studies I can't be bothered to dig up right now.
Sad that the answer now is 'both', which to un-savvy Internet users sometimes means the paid placement is the one they see first and think Google is serving as the top ranking site.