My Message To Google: Stop Cheating
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Perhaps, just perhaps, when people search Google for those things, they really do prefer the Google.com results that come up. It's a name they already know and trust, so clicking the link seems like a no-brainer. They don't need to cheat to get their own results to head to the top of the list.
Tell the Harvard professors to walk into 2,000 McDonalds and order a happy meal and take a survey and complete case study on how many clerks suggest Burger King before they suggest a number 3 value meal.
Now, if Google wanted to be firm, and maybe this does exist, not sure, but when the only privileged results in a search should come from companies who pay for it, and if they do pay for it, Google should have a special surcharge from companies wishing to appear above Google services in that specific search.
Google doesn't cheat, it does what most businesses try and accomplish, a way to run your customers back into your cycle. - GTV
By specifically going to McDonalds you are indeed showing them that you're shopping for a McDonalds Happy Meal, because that's all they've got to sell. But when you're searching for a given term on a site that indexes the entire internet, you're just looking for whatever's most relevant, regardless of where it's hosted.
If you'd wanted the search to only apply to YouTube, well, that's what direct youtube.com and the "site:" keyword are for.