[Ironlink]

You make a great point. To me, Google Search is a bit of a special case in that the data it provides has been posted publicly. Unless the Google Cloud ToS give them the right to publicize your business data, that's out of the question.

Another point here is that Google Search isn't an authoritative source of information, it is up to the end user to inspect the returned links and decide if they can trust that site. This is something that I would not try to automate to the point that I could ask users for money in exchange, and if it can't be automated it doesn't seem like a great fit for Google.

[infogulch]

The question is if they can extract value out of the customers' data that's on or passes through the servers and services that they manage, or if it's too messy to be of use. And my answer to that is that this is Google's primary business model, so surely they could if they wanted to try. Whether they do (surely not) or should (definitely not) are different questions.