“Ads became a global "tax" on using the web, paid mostly by the most vulnerable, non-tech-savvy, users.”
Brin and Page warned in 1998 that ad-funded search would favor advertisers over users. Then they built the biggest ad business in history. Kagi says about 100 big sites now show up in nearly every result and the small web has vanished. The diagnosis is right. The cure is a subscription to Kagi, which is convenient for the guy writing it.