I think to myself how I would probably be just fine if the Google search engine became a public service tomorrow and all advertisements were removed, or perhaps

I think to myself how I would probably be just fine if the Google search engine became a public service tomorrow and all advertisements were removed, or perhaps only a small area of the page were allowed to be used to make enough money to pay the costs of upkeep. I'm reminded of how I was so enamored by the internet during the age of the directory. Humans assembled information to share with each other, and there were different search engines you could use as well. It was just so much more interesting at the time. There are still wonderful examples of information being assembled by humans like Wikipedia. But these types of sites struggle to have enough money to operate, while other companies just dominate everything, especially anything that involves money. That's how the market works. But there are certain things the way having libraries, police, firefighters, maybe you can health insurance, where if profit is the only thing that's going to be considered, it just creates a society that is less worthwhile. Perhaps the search engine needs to be considered a public service.