You looked at the wrong side of Google Search, which is why you didn't understand it. Searchers are the product being sold, Google Search's business is ads, and

You looked at the wrong side of Google Search, which is why you didn't understand it. Searchers are the product being sold, Google Search's business is ads, and it's customers are advertisers. Due to their monopoly, businesses can't switch: You might hate Google. Google might be your direct competitor. No matter what, you have to give Google money, and Google gets to make all of your web design decisions, because if Google doesn't approve of you, you don't exist. Google isn't good at this, it's just that you really can't leave. They have too much search data solely based on the fact everyone already uses them. Why does everyone already use them? They're the default. Through investing in web browsers and mobile OSes, Google is the default everywhere already. And the majority don't ever change the default. So no matter how bad they are at search, they remain in top.