Why Is Hacker News Paying for Google Ads –?

We don't. I have no idea how that came up there.

You're likely to get a better, faster, and authoritative response by contacting the mods directly using the contact link in the footer.

From the guidelines:

> Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Instead, please send it to hn@ycombinator.com.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

If you're looking to have a discussion about it, after getting a response, write up a blog post and submit it as a normal submission.

maybe, just maybe - to prevent others from taking that place. Telling it from my own experience: once I wanted to download some software, typed its name into Google (expecting to see official website as the first result), and saw advertisement for its competitor right at the top. Maybe paying for ads ensures that in this case your link would be on top when googling for your brand name?

It looks like it is to draw attention to ycombinator.com, since that is the first word in the ad title.

The real question is, why are you browsing without a filter?

Waste of money to run ads on your brand name. You rank for it already.