Does Google Sell Trust?

A site's reputation is probably one of the most powerful trust signals, I find myself constantly relying on its interpretation.

But in a society at the peek of consumerism can reputation itself be purchased and can organisations sell their own reputation?

Take for example Google – Is it not safe to say that people trust sites that appear first on the keyword results page more?

In my opinion Google is in fact selling trust and it is doing this in an untrustworthy fashion. Numerous articles have stated that searchers mistake sponsored links for organic search results, insinuating that Google may be tricking people into clicking on ads.

Also I believe that people expect that an organisation such as Google must take big precautions against ever advertising insecure sites and thus they automatically trust Google’s sponsored links. Unfortunately trust is unwarranted, spammers and individual “entrepreneurs” with little scruples and even less security measures, use Google’s Adwords service regularly. Seems to me that Google cashed in some of its trust chips with that one.

I think this is a perfect example where maintaining a reputation for trustworthiness proofs to be subject to management evaluation, and thus should not be taken at face value.

That leaves me wondering, how fast does a reputation dissolve? How much would it cost for Google to regain consumer confidence even after a big security incident? Do consumers become accustomed to trusting organisation and thus develop an aptitude for tolerating security breaches in large organisations?

After all is it costlier to re-trust an established company that just had a security scandal, or to establish a new relationship with a newer, untested organisation?