In their 1998 paper describing Google, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page devoted an appendix to the problem created by advertising-funded search. A ranking system financed by advertisers, they argued, would be biased toward advertisers and away from users, and they recommended that search remain transparent and academic. Google ultimately built an advertising business around the same intermediary position Brin and Page had identified: the system interpreting a buyer's intention could also sell influence over the result.