[tqi]

> The argument I generally hear from certain microeconomists is that they still expect there to be value in niches, given Google's highly general nature. If you're looking for super specific topics, it often doesn't perform extremely well. You'd find it valuable to go to a resource tailored for your area.

I think that is true, but only within a very narrow band of topics that are broad enough to require a search functionality (lexusnexus, webmd, arxiv, etc). I think most topic niches that I would be interested in are more often served by niche publications (ie I wouldn't need/want a search engine geared toward photography, I would mostly go to specific publications and sites that I trust).