Before Google's PR system, I remember Google was pretty cool. Typically I would search for something I considered fairly obscure because otherwise I could probably get the information any place else. And the more obscure, the less likely the pages found were very popular. An similar to how information may be measured as a function of the inverse of probability, the value of the information I found was typically inversely proportional to how well known it was, how popular it was, how many hits it got in one day, etc. Now I certainly understand that sometimes one may want to know which site is most "popular" or "important" or whatever other adjective Google uses to sort pages, but originally it was relevence to the search keywords. Since relevence has been diluted by consideration of what others decided to put links to, for example, Google's value to me has deteriorated. And since Google dominates as a search engine for the web, I've seen other search engines I used to use either follow Google's lead, go belly up, use Google's technology, or not keep up with the massive growth of digital data to index.
Well, I should stop belly aching and start searching for better search tools, or maybe I can even find out how to use an advanced search to take out the PR weighting. But in the meantime, I assume that I am not so unique in the world that a great number of people are having a very similar experience, and that, at least until I get time to find a better way, Google has kind of ruined the internet.