Knew this was an SEO company even before clicking the article. They are the only people who looks at a search page and see dollar signs.

By this logic, when I submit bug report to Apple "I'm now an Apple QA. And I won't get paid for it"

Hmm, but weren't you already rating websites by clicking on the search results before? I don't see how that changes the game - and I must admit I don't know much about SEO - but in my view we were always rating results and that was influencing the position. Now they make the linking obsolete or at least less important signal... that's good? It means that relevant content is going to be surfaced to the top. Win-win honestly (and yes, Google will continue to use users-generated signals to drive their revenue like they always have).

‘Rater’ is useful slang, but it’s a lot more meaningful in the historical context of Google when considered as an abbreviation of ‘curator’.

If you don’t pay, you’re the product TM

Then just make an extension to manipulate this, ad nauseam already exists for ads

One question that I ask is if Google Search is still a search engine, and if it should be considered as one.

If people are going on Google to search and end up in a chat with an LLM, isn't that defrauding the user?

Of course, a LLM can answer a query, but if a user wants to chat to find an answer they can do it.

Doesn't this make a stronger case for chrome to spin off away from Google?

Thumbs up/ preferred sources were always a thing. this is them just stepping into a new world of sharpening those edges. I do agree with your broader point that we are about to enter deep echo chamber of AI hallucinations being stated as facts.

You're also not paying to search on Google.