[taejo]

I don't think it's to hold users on Google as long as possible: it's to give users what they're looking for as soon as possible.

I was looking for a timer utility the other day. I googled "timer 10 minutes", and got back a list of options, with no way to choose one that was actually good (the top result claimed it had an audio indicator but it didn't work, so I ended up missing the end of the ten minutes). Likewise, I used to Google for weather forecasts -- then pick a site, wait for all its chrome to load, and then get my forecast. Now, I search for what I want and get it right away. If I don't like Google's version, I just scroll down to the search results.

At first, their only way to get users what they wanted was to get them off the site; the goal is still to get users what they want as soon as possible -- there's just a better way to do so now.

[cousin_it]

The problem with this approach is that when someone creates a better weather site and the Web decides that it's good, it won't become the top result, because Google's weather functionality is already hardcoded to be the top result.

The right solution is for Google to open up the SERP in a limited way, allow sites to put their widgets there and let them compete. This is tricky (tech, business, UX...) but it's doable and it would be better for the future of the Web.