So much of it's making companies pay to be at the actual-top, when they're already result 1 or 2 in the natural results and are obviously what the searcher want

So much of it's making companies pay to be at the actual-top, when they're already result 1 or 2 in the natural results and are obviously what the searcher wanted. I go out of my way not to click these but most people I observe do click them, even when the non-ad link is also above the fold. That's a "success" for Google, maybe a "success" for the company's marketing department, a loss for the company in fact, and at best neutral for the searcher. Then there's tricking (largely) old people into clicking pages they didn't want, thinking it was a search result. Sometimes even scams. IMO Google's core business model has become scamming advertisers, helping scammers to fool unsophisticated users, and extorting companies, all heavily driven by their inline ads move. I consider them contemptible for continuing it for years when they have to know that's the case, and likely have all along. I hate seeing the same on DDG—and they seem to be getting worse. It must be super effective, but of course tricking people is effective. It's also very, very wrong.