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Severity
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ACUTEpeak 52ranked #23 of 42people’s rank #24 · preview
Case 023 · Search · Admitted 2016
The Enshittification of Google Search
The Enshittification of Google SearchSince 2015, Google has steadily increased the prominence of paid placements in search results while removing long-standing user-facing features such as cached pages and continuous scroll. Regulators challenged the company's multibillion-dollar default-placement deals, and in 2024 a federal judge ruled Google had illegally maintained a search monopoly. Ads have since expanded into new surfaces, including AI-generated answer summaries.
First symptom
Feb 2016
Symptoms on file
7
Categories
3
Prognosis
Acute
3 ads · 2 features · 2 lock-in
Alternatives
Kagipaid
Paid search with zero ads and no tracking. You are the customer, not the product.
DuckDuckGofree
Free private search that does not build a profile on you.
Brave Searchfreemium
Independent index with optional ad-free paid tier.
The Paper Trail
| Date | Category | Symptom · rating · source |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-02 | ads | Google removes right-side ads, adds fourth top adGoogle stopped showing ads in the right-hand column of desktop search results worldwide and began showing a fourth ad above organic results for highly commercial queries, pushing organic listings further down the page.↳ Search Engine Land |
| 2020-01 | ads | Desktop redesign makes ads resemble organic resultsGoogle rolled out a desktop search redesign that placed favicons next to organic results and a small black 'Ad' label in the same position for paid listings, making ads visually similar to organic results. After criticism, Google said it would experiment with alternative designs.↳ TechCrunch |
| 2020-10 | lock-in | DOJ sues Google over default search dealsThe U.S. Department of Justice and eleven states filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging Google illegally maintained its search monopoly through exclusionary agreements, including billions of dollars in annual payments to Apple and others to remain the default search engine.↳ TechCrunch |
| 2024-02 | features | Google removes cached page links from SearchGoogle retired the long-standing 'cached' link feature that let users view stored copies of webpages from search results. Google's search liaison said the feature was no longer needed because page loading reliability had improved.↳ Gizmodo |
| 2024-06 | features | Google drops continuous scroll in search resultsGoogle began removing continuous scrolling from desktop search results, returning to a paginated layout, with mobile to follow. The company said autoloading results users had not requested did not significantly improve satisfaction and slowed result delivery.↳ Search Engine Land |
| 2024-08 | lock-in | Judge rules Google illegally monopolized searchU.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google violated antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly in general search and search text advertising, finding its default-placement payments, estimated at more than $26 billion in 2021, foreclosed competition and allowed it to raise ad prices.↳ Variety |
| 2024-10 | ads | Google begins showing ads in AI OverviewsGoogle started placing 'Sponsored'-labeled ads inside AI Overviews, the AI-generated summaries shown above search results, beginning with mobile users in the U.S. for relevant queries.↳ TechCrunch |
The Wall
- No complaints on file yet. Be the first to vent.
<a href="https://enshittification.xyz/google-search"><img src="https://enshittification.xyz/badge/google-search.svg" alt="Google Search on the Enshittification Index"></a>The Enshittification Index · 42 case files · no source, no entry · updated Jun 2026
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