(In the case that someone in Lemmy still use Google)
maybe $1. That’s way more than the ad revenue search engines get
And where did you come up with this info? Source? Do you really think that search engine ad revenue (for the engine itself, not what one measly advertiser gets back) tops out at “way below” $1 per person?
In 2023, Google’s ad search revenue amounted to 175 billion U.S. dollars.
As you said, it’s hard to calculate an exact number. But if you think your search results are only worth $1/month, that’s up to you to determine. I know if I was an ad-broker or profiler, I’d pay more than $1/month/person as that’s valuable information, in my opinion. And Kagi is worth much more than that to me. Proton theorizes:
If Google Search market share is also 90% in the US, that’s over 274 million people using Google, and the company earns $393 per year from each of them.