From this morning's Kingston Whig-Standard in a story about efforts to counteract the decline in local tourism from America and elsewhere:
...popular Internet search engine Google was paid to rank the www.kingston-itsabouttime.com Web site high in Google searches so that people who are looking for information on Kingston or tourism in Canada are sent to the campaign site first.Surely Google would be useless if rankings were to be affected by payment.

Comments
Craig Willson - July 9, 2003 8:55 am
A 'goggle' of Kingston Ontario shows some sponsored links. See. If this is the issue, it is not a new one. Goggle accepts sponsorships.
Sponsored Links
Kingston Ontario Homes
Real Estate Information for
Kingston Ontario and Area.
www.kingstonhouses.ca/
Interest:
Kingston, ON, Hotels
Point-Travel: Compare Deals From
Leading Sites. Find Low Prices!
www.point-travel.com/kingston
Interest:
Alan - July 9, 2003 9:42 am
I knew about that but the article appeared to be saying that the general links had been affected by sordid lucre.