Web usability guru, Jakob Nielsen, has written an article entitled Search Engines as Leeches on the Web which begins
Summary: Search engines extract too much of the
Web's value, leaving too little for the websites that actually create
the content. Liberation from search dependency is a strategic
imperative for both websites and software vendors.
I worry that search engines are sucking out too much of the Web's
value, acting as leeches on companies that create the very source
materials the search engines index.We've known since AltaVista's launch in 1995 that search is one of the Web’s
most important services. Users rely on search to find what they want among the
teeming masses of pages. Recently, however, people have begun using search engines as answer
engines to directly access what they want -- often without truly engaging
with the websites that provide (and pay for) the services..
I've seen some people claim that "Google is Evil" is the new meme
among web geeks and this looks like a manifestation of this trend. It
looks like the more money Google makes, the more people resent them.
Alas, that is the price of success.