On: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?

[underwater]

Down that road lies the argument that Google should be treated like a public utility. If the only mode of transport available were sponsored taxis, then people would be rightly demanding for the ability to pay for a car or use a government run public transit system.

[chmod600 → underwater]

There are other search engines that work just fine.

[tremon → chmod600]

Do the other search engines work fine because you pay them directly, instead of them being ad-funded? Because that's the argument the GP was using.