These problems are surely the beginning of much bigger ones in the future. One can imagine the number of ways that a search company could control a group or society through an engine that users assume is impartial and objective. I would think that eventually there will be government regulations on search engines, in addition to new regulations introduced at the IP transport level as well. This of course would require a much higher level of formalization in the information and linguistic sciences. There is a growing contingency of tech savvy activists who are vehemently fighting this encroachment into thier digital communication infrastructure.
http://www.eff.org . There is Lessig of course, and a few other important lawyers and technology people. I had mentioned on the Azipa list more than a year ago the problems concerning municipal wireless and how hidden cost structures will effect their success. Verizon has since 'put on a happy face' and are now ostensibly more positive about the prospects( and sales value ) of a 'neutral network'. It seems more like bait than an honest sales bid.
In general most people do not understand to what extent this indexing of content can be used. Natural Language Processing has made some serious strides in recent years. It cetainly touches on a lot of hot topics such as privacy, etc.