[closedloop129]

>Because Google would then become a business with virtually no revenue - and no chance of producing revenue.

kagi.com bets on becoming a business with revenue. In the same way, Google could start asking money for searches without ads.

In the long run, Google should make more money because a society that runs on the best available information will be more valuable. The information market will be bigger and thus Google's income should be bigger.

The problem is that it's too easy to pitch advertisers against each other and force them to pay a huge fraction of their profits. On the other hand, profit margins in a transparent market are small.

Google could become something like Bloomberg and sell their good information to companies for high margins.