> If Google could turn off search and still make as much money just showing ads? No. You're not serious right? Google doesn't run a search engine for the fun o

> If Google could turn off search and still make as much money just showing ads? No. You're not serious right? Google doesn't run a search engine for the fun of it, they're a for-profit company, if they can pull out an extra margin without search they would do that immediately. The core value is absolutely not search, search is an acquisition channel to bring in customers to click on ads. No one is paying them for searches. You're right that DDG is an advertising company as well, who also have search as their primary (only?) acquistion channel. However their customer base is specifically looking for alternatives to google and one of the core value propositions of that is to have privacy and minimal user tracking.