“Google has long encouraged brands to buy ad space for queries with their own name, lest they have their search results space stolen by a competitor.”
The antitrust trial forced out one week of Google’s top queries by revenue, from September 2018. Five are insurance. Several are just brand names like “at&t,” “xfinity,” “hulu” and “uber,” typed by people who already know where they’re going. Hulu pays Google to stand between Hulu and its own customers. That is not a search engine. It’s a toll booth.