The issue with search engines is that they tend to get very good by using clickthrough data, so the more you use something the better it gets. Indexing and rank

The issue with search engines is that they tend to get very good by using clickthrough data, so the more you use something the better it gets. Indexing and ranking algorithms can only do so much. The interesting question is that does Google own the click through data or does the user? Does Google exclusively own the fact that you clicked on the 4th link in Google leading to php.net when you searched for 'php'? Or can the user or government get this data to alternate search engines for better competition just like they forced Microsoft to open up Office file formats and SMB protocol docs to their rivals? If you remember the big deal about the optional Bing bar in IE uploading the search term and clicked URL in Google search results to Bing it looks like many people on here think Google exclusively owns the clickstream data, and it's not the users' to do what it wants. This is the reason that a paid search engine won't do very well, just like a paid social network wouldn't, because both rely on a lot of people using it to seed it and a paywall will hurt.