I think there is a very simple solution. It requires no technology, but it does require changing the culture of billions of people. And that solution is to make search a paid-for utility. People pay for their ISP, Electricity and Phone, but expect search for free. The problem is this would be less profitable for Google. Because advertising me a $10,000 computer at $10/1000 impressions that I will buy "for my company" is more profitable than me paying $10 a month for search. Therefore the solution might be to make Google a public service, perhaps owned my multiple governments around the world. Call me a dreamer! Downside to that might be tighter surveillance though :-(
I don't see blockchain as a knight in shining armour here. Search is one of those hard things. Like sending a man to the moon. No one can compete overnight. Maybe the hope is AI could create a scenario where a search engine running locally is realistic (like all the prompt-based image generation stuff that has come out, can be run locally now).
Yeah, anything paid can have ads. Cable TV springs to mind. Magazines. Even streaming services are thinking about it.
If search becomes a utility, like water or natural gas, presumably there would be some limit to the advertising. I think the original Google results with ads on the right format is a good compromise. Because 2% of the time an ad is what you actually want, and those options are then presented still.
I don't see blockchain as a knight in shining armour here. Search is one of those hard things. Like sending a man to the moon. No one can compete overnight. Maybe the hope is AI could create a scenario where a search engine running locally is realistic (like all the prompt-based image generation stuff that has come out, can be run locally now).