"I'm undecided about DDG with regard to its relevance for my search behaviour. " This is a misunderstanding of the economics. Every dollar you spend on someth

"I'm undecided about DDG with regard to its relevance for my search behaviour. " This is a misunderstanding of the economics. Every dollar you spend on something is a dollar of value taken away from you in value - 'low price' means more surplus and value to the consumer, all other things being equal. A crapy search engine with 10 000 customers will make more money than a great search engine that is essentially free - but which one is better? There are other factors at play here, especially concerning scale, whereupon a smaller upstart, with a product 10x better would never be able to compete just on the basis of the cost of customer acquisition, which is arbitrary. And of course, that search is free, it's a strategic investment on everyone's part to begin with. 'In Other Words' - the search engine with the most, crappiest ads, is going to get top place, but the search engine with 0 ads, supported by open source ... nobody would find out about? They need to remove the auction, it makes the whole exercise pointless.