The answer is essential greed, aka corporate fiduciary responsibly to increase shareholder profit.

Gomes reportedly sparred with Google over its decision to set its metrics on the total number of user queries. The former head of search reportedly balked at this metric because an improved search functionality should ideally prioritize answering users’ questions with as few clicks as possible. Google, the DOJ argued, benefits from users taking longer to search because the company can run ads against each of those queries. Around 80% of Google revenues reportedly come from advertising. If a user needs to refine their search a few times to get what they’re looking for, or if they have to scroll deeper through the results, more ads can be served to them.

Innovation can be driven by capitalism and seeking a more efficient product, but here we see where capitalism can stifle it as well. Lack of competition and regulatory capture disincentivizes innovation.