This is a great piece of writing by Marco Arment (the dude behind Instapaper). However there are a few points that could be made to defend Google’s honour.
While it can be said that a Google.com search can be seen as an unproductive service nowadays. The success of Google comes down to it’s other searching services that are normally forgotten about. Such services as Google Books and Scholar are often over looked to answer the quick questions users may have. While the idea of ‘reading’ a ‘book’ to find out “how to wire an electric outlet” (as Arment makes an example of) sounds costly to the amount of time you set to answer such a question. The stigma behind this is unavoidable but should be ignored in my eyes.
The fact is that your probably going to get more accurate/correct solution to any problem you have through this media. Information from a book or a piece of literature devoted to searched subject of choice is much more reliable than any eHow or Answers.com information.
So while I can see the reasons people are pointing the finger at Google, the service you want is still there. It’s just not from the same URL you want it to be.
Being realistic the idea that Google will change is one with a very high doubt margin. However, the idea that users might change is all the more likely.
