Insisting that organic search results are just that, officials at Google are working hard to address accusations by a French website that search results are adjusted based on commercial considerations.

In a PC World story, Google defended its search result ranking method.

"Our organic search results have always been completely independent from our paid advertisements," said software engineer Matt Cutts, in a statement sent via the company's public relations department. "We consider the objectivity of our search results to be paramount to our success and would never compromise that in any way."

Earlier this week, the French-language blog Zorgloob started a fire among bloggers when it posted a screenshot of Google's search results that listed dollar values for each link.

Google said the screenshot is authentic, but insisted that it's a tool the AdWords sales team uses for new customer acquisition purposes. 

ValleyWag called Google's explanation "the most charitable interpretation" of the screenshot. The gossip site pointed out that the screenshot could just as easily demonstrate possible tinkering with Google's search algorithms.