Do you remember when using Google to search for something online felt like magic?

I'm old enough to remember before Google and it was really hard to find anything on the internet.

That is Ryan McDevin. He is an economist at Duke.

Google was a revelation because it made this information accessible and it was so useful.

The power of that revelation faded as revelations do and we all began to take Google for granted.

When you needed some information you just typed a few words into the search box.

Very quickly you got the answer you were looking for, usually from an authoritative source.

But today, to me at least, it doesn't feel the same. My search results just don't seem as useful.

I feel like I'm seeing more ads, more links that might as well be ads, more links to spammy web pages.

Do you also feel like Google isn't what it used to be?

Today on Freakinomics Radio, how did Google come to dominate web search in the first place?

People be like, your search engine is so good and you're not making any money and we just wanted to pay you.

What happened when Google essentially became a monopoly?

The problem with monopoly power is that you can degrade the experience because you've locked in that

user. And we will hear Google's defense. Or is it more of a threat?

If I took Google away he would go nuts.

Is Google getting worse? Or is it just that, as Milton Friedman might have said,

there's no such thing as a free search?

This is Freakinomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything,

with your host, Stephen Dubner.

In the beginning, computer scientists created the World Wide Web and the web was, without form,

and void. Darkness was upon the face of the internet. And someone said, let there be search

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