I think they win big on advertising because they auction keywords. That was a novel idea and the one really big economic success they have had which funds everything else. I don’t think they need to make search less good to get more money. They do put the add more and more prominently, but the raw search results seem to be steadily improving if you can get used to the idea they are now trying to understand your intent instead of just grep’ing the internet.

It’s not that they need to make it less good. It’s that they need to make it less controllable and flexible. They get paid for each keyword search you do that generates advertising clicks.

Most people seem to disagree with you about the raw results improving. They certainly don’t seem to be for me.