when google first came out it had nothing to do with that, it was that they offered as strong algorithmic ranking in the feed. Before that the search providers

when google first came out it had nothing to do with that, it was that they offered as strong algorithmic ranking in the feed. Before that the search providers ran in a few ways (by my memory): 1. Sell the first few results but make it look organic (this all happened behind closed doors and I knew a few people who paid for such results) 2. Hierarchical/topic based collections of links (This is what Yahoo was famous for in the 90s if I remember correctly, I'll keep saying that because it was a long time ago!) The whole "google cares about you" was an outcropping of the organic flocking to google because of their reliable and algorithmic results that just seemed trustworthy, they capitalized on that and it honestly lasted a lot longer than I expected before they really started being evil.