Apparently, perhaps the 'scroogled' campaign is having an effect.
However it does give a better insight into the challenges of building a search product. It is a series of really challenging problems. So many people take search for granted these days.
Yes and no - 'scroogled' is bring up stuff like - selling ads based on context - but are you paying $20/year for outlook.com email? Gmail is free and pretty awesome (haven't gotten spam in years).
It may just be PR, but I do think a lot of non-technical people can benefit from going through the animation. It's pretty amazing that that is what's happening. It could just be an attempt by Google to expose their craft to the technical layperson.
However it does give a better insight into the challenges of building a search product. It is a series of really challenging problems. So many people take search for granted these days.