It is a feedback cycle that has a negative effect on all consumers, not just the consumers that would use a different search engibne. The feedback works like t

It is a feedback cycle that has a negative effect on all consumers, not just the consumers that would use a different search engibne. The feedback works like this: 1. Google is dominant and can outbid competitors. 2. Many (most?) users will not change default search provider so long as it is basically functional. 3. Google's competitors will only attract a minority of customers that realize they can change and decide to. 4. Google stays dominant and competition is stifled and with it any improvements. As a user of alternate search engines, I am hurt because if 2 did not occur and people that did not care were distributed evenly then my search provider would have more revenue and would presumably hire more engineers to improve the service. Another competitor cannot capture that revenue from 2 simply because Google can always outbid them because of their dominance. Of course, there are some number of people who would switch to Google if the default was Bing, but is it significantly different than the people switching now?