isn’t this one of the classic reasons monopolies are bad?
[edit]
please let me clarify the reason i wrote the above is because examine.com basically has no recourse but to appeal to google since they are basically a monopoly in search results, which is one of the reasons people consider a monopoly to be bad... they can’t just “pay more to bing” and get all their lost traffic back can they?
You're right, yes. It seems search is one of those winner-take-all markets where the data Google has ensures that they'll stay years ahead of everybody else.
With 92% of the global search market (https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share), that gives them an incredible amount of power and influence over countless business and people. And they've repeatedly shown little regard for casualties of their policies or the Algorithm.
[edit] please let me clarify the reason i wrote the above is because examine.com basically has no recourse but to appeal to google since they are basically a monopoly in search results, which is one of the reasons people consider a monopoly to be bad... they can’t just “pay more to bing” and get all their lost traffic back can they?