>Google would've been pretty useless if you had to pay before seeing the results. Debatable. If Google really did provide superior search results people would

>Google would've been pretty useless if you had to pay before seeing the results. Debatable. If Google really did provide superior search results people would probably be willing to pay for it. At this point, I would consider paying for good search results. Google right now is more of a search for people who pay for a lot of SEO rather than a more objective form of search. Google Premium, for a small fee, could remove the ads and go further to eliminate SEO content. IMO this is going to be the future for many software companies. There will be the mass market version which relies on ad support and there will be the premium product which is paid for directly and provides a superior result. It has already begun in many sectors. Free stuff catches on quickly but in the long run, quality costs money, and there WILL be a place for quality.