The same rules that allow scammers to look like a legit result allow smaller firms to compete with the Best Buys and Targets of the world by advertising their local outfits on searches for "Best Buy" and "Target." Without that allowance, organic search degenerates into a winner-take-all system and one of two things happens: (a) small places are just locked out of search traffic, (b) they invest that money in SEO instead of ads and the organic results get worse as people try and trick Google into thinking their site is Best Buy or Target.

There should be a solution to the problem of the scammers. Banning advertising being allowed to show up on someone else's organic search results ain't it.