If the ruling was upheld, Google wouldn't gain any new liability for putting a TikTok-like frontend on video search results; the only reason they're not doing it now is that all existing platforms (including YouTube) funnel all the recommendation clicks back into themselves. If YouTube had to stop offering recommendations, Google could take over their user experience and spin them off into a hosting company that derived its revenue from AdSense and its traffic from "Google Shorts."
This ruling is not a ban on algorithms, it's a ban on the vertical integration between search or recommendation and hosting that today makes it possible for search engines other than Google to see traffic.
I actually don't think Google search will be protected in its current form. Google doesn't show you unadulterated search results anymore, they personalize (read: editorialize) the results based on the data they've collected on you, the user. This is why two different people entering the same query can see dramatically different results.
If Google wants to preserve their safe harbour protections they'll need to roll back to a neutral algorithm that delivers the same results to everyone given an identical query. This won't be the end of the world for Google but it will produce lower quality results (at least in the eyes of normal users who aren't annoyed by the personalization). Lower quality results will further open the doors to LLMs as a competitor to search.
And newspapers decide every single word they publish, because they’re liable for it. If a newspaper defames someone they can be sued.
This whole case comes down to having your cake and eating it too. Newspapers don’t have that. They have free speech protections but they aren’t absolved of liability for what they publish. They aren’t protected under section 230.
If the ruling is upheld by SCOTUS, Google will have to choose: section 230 (and no editorial control) or first amendment plus liability for everything they publish on SERPs.
This ruling is not a ban on algorithms, it's a ban on the vertical integration between search or recommendation and hosting that today makes it possible for search engines other than Google to see traffic.