As a consumer, I like this - saves me some clicks and spares me from ads. Can't be good for lyrics sites though.
Nobody wants to go to Google Play for lyrics, this is Google giving priority placement to an inferior search result.
"We know millions of people chose to click on other results but since we make (more) money on this one we'll strongly suggest you click on it from now on."
"Our super algorithms give you the best results ... most of the time. Sometimes we'll give you a website we own that isn't the best result from the algo but you know it's cool because reasons."
Maybe if there were some that weren't utter shit, I'd agree. But the thing is that before this, the only results I was getting were inferior search results.
An (anonymous) search for "shake hands with beef lyrics" turns up azlyrics.com, lyricsfreak.com as #1 and #2, followed by Wikipedia (which doesn't have lyrics) and then metrolyrics.com - probably the best of a bad bunch.
Tack "genius" onto the search and it'll show up, but right now it's hardly competing for first-page search results.
The fundamental problem is a technicality of the songwriting process; To assure that lyricists and composers both got fair shares, songs consist of two separate entities for copyright purposes; Their lyrics, and their music.
Therefore, when companies protect copyright, they need to protect copyright for the individual parts. Ergo, they go after lyrics sites, since they're committing wholesale infringement.
Rather than the record labels setting up their own distribution sites, so that they could control and monetize, they viewed these as valuable property - since, after all, they're half the value of the song! The same problem exists with Guitar tabs, though as they're more specialized the community has mostly rallied to make those sites palatable.
I just searched for "Ashtray Monument Lyrics" on DuckDuckGo and it came up with http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/jawbreaker/ashtray_monume...
I'm running AdBlock and the lyricsmode.com page came up completely acceptably.
p.s. If you like the song, here's a live version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEvlHNPpQQ
One ad is less than many other lyrics sources display, so even accepting your description, it still spares you ads.
> Nobody wants to go to Google Play for lyrics
If I want lyrics, I want accurate lyrics. If Google Play provides accurate lyrics, in a low-distraction format, then I definitely want to go to Google Play for lyrics.
> this is Google giving priority placement to an inferior search result.
inferior to what?