There is a fundamental change in Google Search and its purpose. Google Search no longer is a Search Engine. It's now aiming to be an answer engine. That may s

There is a fundamental change in Google Search and its purpose. Google Search no longer is a Search Engine. It's now aiming to be an answer engine. That may sound like a distinction without a difference, but in practice the changes are profound. With an answer engine, your goal is to find THE 1 correct answer. So your algorithm consistently refines and eliminate low "accuracy" results. If you reliably knew that only 5% of users found a certain response useful to their query, in an answer engine you get rid of that response because it's clearly "wrong". In a search engine, however, you retain that response. In fact, you signal boost it, because it clearly shows that even though there is another answer that is chosen by say 90% of users, the 5% usage for the 2nd response indicates that even if it may not be the correct "answer" to the query, it's of value to folks, and is related to the query being searched. An answer engine eliminates serendipitous connections, because almost by definition those connections are not the answer to the query being asked. A search engine not only doesn't punish a serendipitous connection, it seeks to surface it.