I think also their free products (search, and then email) where so so good and miles ahead of the alternative that people also wanted to be convinced themselves

I think also their free products (search, and then email) where so so good and miles ahead of the alternative that people also wanted to be convinced themselves that it was a "not evil" company. Still to the day, where there's ok alternatives and search and mail are riddled with spam problems, being Google-less is not straightforward and takes actual work. The mental energy can just be diverted into convincing yourself Google is not that bad or that everything is fine because everyone else is using it and you'll probably be ok.