Who Killed Google Search? An Investigation

Remember when Google Search actually showed you what you were looking for, not a page full of ads and SEO spam? If you do, you probably remember the pre-2019 era. Nowadays, the search engine feels more like a shopping mall where finding the right product is pure luck.

Author Edward Zitron conducted a deep investigation and concluded: the killers of Google Search are not competitors, but its own top managers. Chasing quarterly profits, they sacrificed search quality, replacing algorithms with models optimized for ad clicks. The result? Users are increasingly turning to alternatives like Perplexity or simply adding "reddit" to their queries.

How did we get here?

It all started when Google decided that search is not a service but a way to display ads. More ads mean more revenue. But users hate it, so they start looking for workarounds. The paradox: Google knows quality is declining but does nothing because ads bring in billions.

Moreover, Google aggressively promotes its own services (YouTube, Maps, Flights) at the expense of third-party sites. Finding an independent review or a blog has become nearly impossible. In the end, Google Search turned into a monopolization tool rather than an information retrieval system.

METABYTE studio comment: The Google Search story is a perfect example of how short-term profit kills long-term trust. When developing your own products, always remember: users aren't stupid—they can tell when you're trying to milk them.