[brudgers]

The idea of a search engine is long since gone. Google is a destination...mail, news, interesting links, etc. So is Facebook [just replace 'mail' with 'messages']. It's really the Yahoo/AOL/Compuserve model that works over the long haul.

The future of actual search is something that gets out of the way like Siri or Cortana. But there's not really money in search. The money is in siloing and data collection.

[Gustomaximus]

Google is largely ads these days on anything commercial, followed by organic. With the introduction of a 4th top placement ad its amazing how little organic search is showing on a screen.

Type in a competitively commercial term like 'credit card' and think how it was 10 years back. Its amazing how they have trained us to accept this. Or maybe its just the lock of better options...