It's literally a principal-agent problem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_pr

It's literally a principal-agent problem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_proble...). If the evolution of Google's results page is any indication, it's a matter of "when" (not "if") the usefulness gets sold away to the highest bidder. Having billions of people rely on your system is too tempting a thing to not sell away. "Parasitic middleman" is Silicon Valley's business model.