Google is mostly interested in money, and influence. Often top results are quite predictable, they promote their friends. That said, the engine is an algorithm and does function to a large extent on keywords, phrases and images, so you have to have good text or images or you’ll be at the back. You can also test your results in Bing and search engines other than Google.
Yes, Google is mostly corrupt and greedy. Bing seems to be a kissing cousin to Google. Same with Yahoo. In any case, you can have all the “good” text and/or images you want but if you cross them politically they suppress your presence in various ways.
On that note, have you ever heard of DMOZ? If so, what do you think about that corrupt operation?