> $0.02 per click is not cheap for your own name, and this protection is more like protection in the mafia sense of the term.

This is something you have to pay only if someone else is bidding on your own brand. Otherwise you’re already the first result and you don’t need any ad. This occurs only if you’re already a big player, and so $0.02 is nothing for you compared to what your competitors are spending. There’s nothing mafia-like here, it would be exactly the same (but much more expensive) in the physical world.

For Ford, $0.02 per click is millions, which is all I said.

> This occurs only if you’re already a big

I see this for a tiny local food truck and accidentally click their ad instead of first result many times when ordering lunch, when I'm trying to not cost them by going through Google's "protection."

> For Ford, $0.02 per click is millions, which is all I said.

Yes, and that’s peanuts compared to the money they make from these clicks.

> I see this for a tiny local food truck and accidentally click their ad instead of first result many times when ordering lunch, when I'm trying to not cost them by going through Google's "protection."

I don’t see what’s wrong in having to pay to get back the first place when someone else is already giving money to overcome you.