Google's goal isn't to create the best possible search engine, it's to have a search engine that is good enough that people won't actively seek an alternative a

Google's goal isn't to create the best possible search engine, it's to have a search engine that is good enough that people won't actively seek an alternative at the same time that they put as much ad content as possible in there, again before it's so much that people seek an alternative. I doubt many advertisers like the status quo very much either. They basically have to pay for ad placement to ensure the first results for their product aren't ads for competing products. On mobile when I search for Boox the first result linking to them is an ad. Same for Kobo. In other instances I'll search for company or product and a competitor ad is the first to show. So vendors get stuck paying for ads when their own site should probably be the first organic result, above the ads.