I agree google is bad, but I think reddit is rapidly becoming equally as inauthentic. I'm sure every major player at this point understands the gains that can be had by astroturfing reddit. The real problem seems to be the internet is inherently untrustworthy and going back to finding people you trust in the real world is the only fix I can see.
We've also got to address the people and corporations that are gaming the system that google has created. Google is by no means off the hook, but Marketing practices have also taken a very bad turn to deception and in reinforcing a payola systems recently that we may never be able to recover from trust-wise.
