Just for fun lets have some crazy left field prediction that sounds good but has a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of being right: SpendRank.
Continuing the support for large brands and to stem the tide of link buying, Google launches a new algorithm called SpendRank that takes account of media buying activity associated with your Google account (Display, Paid Search - Adwords). The more you spend the higher you rank. SEO’s worldwide move their media and creative budgets back to Google, and Google’s investors are happy again.
2012 search predictions: the experts’ view | Econsultancy
I don’t think that prediction is all that crazy ;-)