Contrary to many posts here, I think that Google completely controls the quality of the results. The feeling is that quality has gone down because a lot of top ranked website are SEO ads filled websites. I think this is true and on purpose. Two years ago top results were very often Wikipedia, Stack overflow or reddit. Sending users to those websites is not profitable for Google.
I also think that's why it's very hard for competitors to compete. As soon as one is going to get credibly menacing they'll improve on the quality again to preserve their position.
I think that has happened with McDonald's for instance. A few years ago the quality was at it's lowest, the food definitely started to feel fake, air filled and not satisfying. Since the small local competition of hand crafted hamburger popped up a bit everywhere, and credible international competitors ramped up (5 guys, in n out...) they had to improve the quality. And my impression is that it's been a bit more than a year that the quality dramatically improved, and their hamburgers actually taste like food again.
I think it's simply the quality versus profits cursor and it can be adapted any time.
I also think that's why it's very hard for competitors to compete. As soon as one is going to get credibly menacing they'll improve on the quality again to preserve their position.
I think that has happened with McDonald's for instance. A few years ago the quality was at it's lowest, the food definitely started to feel fake, air filled and not satisfying. Since the small local competition of hand crafted hamburger popped up a bit everywhere, and credible international competitors ramped up (5 guys, in n out...) they had to improve the quality. And my impression is that it's been a bit more than a year that the quality dramatically improved, and their hamburgers actually taste like food again.
I think it's simply the quality versus profits cursor and it can be adapted any time.