There is an old joke among librarians that goes "What is the difference between a librarian and an ordinary person?" Answer: Normal people like to FIND answers, librarians like to SEARCH. That really does sum it up. Librarians like the challenge of not simply finding an answer. We want to find the most accurate, up to date, thorough and objective answer, even if it takes looking at a dozen sources to get there. What is more, librarians want sources to be discovered and selected based on their inherent value and merit as reputable sources of information. We cringe at the idea that sources are picked merely by page rank based on an internet search. Even more egregious is the idea that search results could be manipulated by paying for page rankings. Google, and most other search engines, only offer paid rankings explicitly for advertisements. Still, librarians would like to believe in an ideal world where search engines are primarily for providing objective answers to people's information needs.
This is quite the opposite of John Battelle's thesis in his book The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture. Battelle, the cofounding editor of Wired magazine, maintains that "Commerce drives search, and search drives commerce." The internet is a form of media, and media operates by generating advertising revenues for businesses. Battelle writes an intriguing account of how various search engines competed for market share in the early days of the internet and how Google eventually rose to dominance. He then details how Google little by little crafted a strategy to become one of the most lucrative IT companies in the industry.
I don't doubt for a minute the importance of commerce in fueling the growth of the Internet. I enjoy being able to obtain a host of paid services and products online. The internet has completely changed the way I make my travel plans, for instance. Nevertheless, it does not quite feel right to me to say that the purpose of search engines, or the internet, is to make money. Maybe I am naive, but I would like to believe that the internet serves a higher purpose than making profits. I would prefer to think that facilitating communication and increasing access to knowledge is the primary purpose of the internet.
