They are though. The most profitable paid search engines have incredibly sophisticated operators and interfaces. Westlaw has a super sophisticated topic sorting

They are though. The most profitable paid search engines have incredibly sophisticated operators and interfaces. Westlaw has a super sophisticated topic sorting system that goes back about a century. Lexis has something similar it generates by software. Free search isn’t the only way. When your users all charge hundreds or thousands of dollars an hour and really need good information, they will pay a lot. What’s ultimately limited is general user free search. Normal person time just isn’t very valuable and they mostly just want stimulation. Google is mostly a stimulation engine pretending to be a knowledge engine. It started off as more of a knowledge engine and over time optimized itself for providing a buzz.