Google has decided it efficacious to pursue academe and journalist critics ... just because it feels it can with impunity.
Pursuant to the loss of free speech elsewhere that 1998 motto "Don't be evil" of theirs has surfaced in a new underlying standard operating procedure which is nothing but stupefying evil.
If you disagree with google you run the risk of losing out in some business venture or position with which they may be involved.
Their ad services used to be sufficient for site operations in many instances where now a paygate is required to make ends meet. This is because you have to go through some circuitous set of mechanics to even show up on a page and they want to rule every aspect of your web experience.
Monopolies used to be illegal for a time in the United States. Over the years, the lobbyists and other bottom feeding vermin out to prey on anything and everything which may be available have tainted sound business with those shape charges favoring that pseudo search engine nouveau where rankings are bought and not the result of click metrics.
The business model of the world is faulty. It's a business model designed with bias and an uneven topology for those in business. The regulations which govern monopolies at the governmental level no longer work. It's time for the consumer to step in but too many of us are ignorant to the mechanics involved in products designed to appear as though they're search engines when in fact the topmost returns are "purchased" not the results of being "clicked upon".
Somehow the big picture is obscured in that cloud called ignorance of the customer ... that's you.