I think that the differences between manipulation and influence are quite clear. Manipulation regards to the use of unfair or fraudulent methods to achieve goals, while influence is the power to get other people done something for either personal interests or collective interests. In my opinion, manipulation is always bad because the process involves improper methods. On the other hand, influence can be good or bad, depending on the purpose. If influence is used for something harming the society, then it's bad; but if influence is for the something that will benefit the society as a whole, then it's good. Influence can become playing politics if people focus too much on the process of influence rather than achieving the goal.
We can influence others while adhere to our core values, depending on what the core values are. If the core value is honest, then we will be able to stay true with it because we should not provide false information to influence others. But if we believe that people should always do something at will, then maybe sometimes we cannot adhere to it as we sometimes need to let others do something they dislike. We absolutely need to care about other people influenced, but should we use the influence weapons for something benefiting the public, then we should go forward even though the interests of people influenced may be hurt.
Regarding to Google's case, whether it's OK for Google to influence people for their own benefit depends on Google's purpose. If Google really wants to improve social welfare and what it does benefits the public, then its influence is ethical. But if Google just wants to manipulate people for its own profits, then its influence is not OK and should be stopped immediately by the government.
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