Google Search users aren't Google's customers. Making Google Search useful to its users is not what makes it profitable. It only needs to be mildly better than

Google Search users aren't Google's customers. Making Google Search useful to its users is not what makes it profitable. It only needs to be mildly better than the competition, so that people use it and can be used for collecting data and serving ads. So GP may not be "an unprofitable long tail". GP may in fact be "a profitable typical long tail for whom Google Search is frustratingly unhelpful".