Given search is a near total monopoly, I think it's honestly miraculous that Google doesn't suck more than it does.
I can count the examples of times where non-state ran monopolies benefit the consumer on zero hands.
I can count the examples of times where non-state ran monopolies benefit the consumer on zero hands.
It's a giant product with thousands of hands in it. Processing it the same way you process other consumer decisions is a mistake.
It is not a monopoly where people don't have a choice. Bing and its derivatives exist, also Yandex and Baidu and several smaller players. Bing is installed by default on every Windows PC. Not only that but the EU is watching Google very closely for antitrust violations, like they did with Internet Explorer back in the days.
Google cannot afford to suck too much or it won't last long. And there is not much lock-in when it comes to search engines.
I used it, it's OK, not really any better overall. Slightly worse in some areas and slightly better in others
The problem seems to be that the incentives set up by Google flooded the web with low quality information
Also, some people probably LIKE some of the low quality information ... but I still think there was a fair amount of mismanagement
“Split-face” would immediately return the horrible accident (don’t Google it, really - and yes, pun intended), “Scientists” would actually return non-editorialized scientists… Microsoft could have been farther and marketed Google as the colourful kindergarten that you give your children access to, whereas journalists and researchers would use Bing. But they folded.