I think that they'd rather show you the right answers, if they can. Those sites will often have exactly the same ads, and they won't make you think about jumping ship to Bing or Kagi. And advertisers will pay more for sites that actually have good reputations.

Search engines are the picks-and-shovels of the Internet gold rush. They profit either way. They want to do it in a way that keeps the gravy train going.

I'm no starry-eyed capitalist. I'm sure that Google would sell their own grandmothers for a few ad clicks. But occasionally the cynical thing to do is actually the right thing.