Niche for now, but I think a lot of people can see the value of search without ads.
I wish you luck, but I mean, I use Google and I haven’t seen a search ad for what, a decade (okay, less than a decade considering iOS)? Most people who don’t want to see search ads can pretty easily find an ad blocker.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Online encyclopedia was very niche when Wikipedia started.
I mean, it's not even remotely comparable. It's not like we have to look at paper search engines as an alternative to online search engines. The whole point is that the general public has no real reason to switch, never mind donate.