'weather + GEO' is another example.
WorGeneral - no question it's pretty cool but who's to say that Google have got the best opinion on the forecast or are most accurate with cinema times? The original Google algo is kinda based on a system of democracy with inbound links being considered as votes.
This makes sense - over time, people's votes will decide which is the 'best' result to show.
But now Google are doing away with this system and unilaterally deciding their own info is the best on the web regardless of how many people agree.
Hadhad, this isn't about Google learning from others to get an edge. It's about them doing away with the normal requirment to rank and just popping their info right at the top.
Slippery slope...
Votes made sense in years gone by but we all know how easily these "votes" can be rigged in our own/others favour which is why we see the changes to the algo and why it considers more than just the quantity of backlinks a website has.
Personally I think pagerank should never of been divulged publicly and this problem of selling/buying links to rank would not of been the large issue it is today.
It doesn't really matter what the original algo was anyway, everything evolves (for the better) and Google is probably at forefront of companies bringing consumers new and fancy tools like maps, local listings, street view and so forth, so it's hardly unexpected to see them make new additions to the SERPS like the movie times.
There was similar dismay when Adwords was introduced and now that's considered part and parcel of the search engine.
Anyway, who says Google has a requirement to rank other sites at the top in the prominent position and not their own? Although it's a large company, I wouldn't accept anyone telling me how to operate my own websites and I think that should extend itself to Google as well.