"...You're proposing then, that web developers make it easy to distinguish ads from content, so that search engines can return content rather than ads..."

Let me say that I'd be happy if the search engine results returned relevant results rather than junk. I see this as a protocol/toolset problem akin to spam. Once upon a time people said that spam could never be beaten. We were doomed to read e-mails about Viagara until Hades opened popsicle stands, but someone build a neato tool called a spam filter. Now we still get spam, but it is tolerable.

"...You will always have people with incentive to try to game the system..."

There are always going to be people who will try to break into my car. Does that mean I should purchase a car without locks next time?

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