I think it's kind of interesting to think that Google has been doing this for a long time but they've been doing it at an uneven pace for different properties.

I think it's kind of interesting to think that Google has been doing this for a long time but they've been doing it at an uneven pace for different properties. Search actually seems like it got this treatment first, and in a creeping slow way, and it wasn't even necessarily 100% Google's fault. It seems like it probably got pushed a long at first by SEO types.. and then at some point Google realized it was profitable to actually play along with the whole game.