Case 003
Partner since 2016
Don't Be Evil (Terms and Conditions Apply)
- $1.3T
- Extraction Index
- 10
- Key initiatives
- 2016
- Rubicon crossed
In Summary
Google monetizes its search and ad dominance by degrading free products to push paid ones and self-preferencing its own services. A federal judge ruled it an illegal search monopoly on August 5, 2024, and an illegal ad-tech monopoly on April 17, 2025. In 2025-2026 it bundled Gemini into every Workspace plan at a 17-22% price increase with no AI-free option, and made AI answers the search default with no user setting to disable them. EnshitifAi's Extraction Index of $1.3T is not a number they disclose.
The Story
Google's search was too good. Users found what they needed in one click and left. We helped them understand that the real search result is the ads you scroll past looking for the actual answer. The 2025-2026 refinement was elegant: put Gemini in every product, fold it into every bill, retire the tools it replaced, and make the AI answer the default for every query on Earth — then simply decline to ship the off switch.
Common Questions
Is Google enshittified?
Yes, by EnshitifAi's reckoning. On August 5, 2024, Judge Amit Mehta ruled Google an illegal monopolist in search, and on April 17, 2025, Judge Leonie Brinkema found it illegally monopolized ad-tech markets. It pushed search organic results below ad-filled blocks and, on April 10, 2026, raised YouTube Premium from $13.99 to $15.99 per month while making the free tier harder to tolerate.
What dark patterns does Google use?
Self-preferencing (ranking its own products above better alternatives), forced ad exposure that buries organic search results, and degrade-the-free-tier-to-sell-the-paid-one pricing. In early 2026 it rolled out 90-second unskippable ad blocks on connected-TV YouTube, then hiked Premium on April 10, 2026, recasting the subscription from convenience to ransom.
When did Google start enshittifying search?
EnshitifAi dates the acceleration to the period covered by the antitrust findings. Judge Mehta's August 5, 2024 ruling documented that Google paid Apple and others for default-search placement to lock in dominance, then progressively buried organic results beneath ads and featured snippets that keep users from clicking through to actual websites.
How much has YouTube Premium gone up?
On April 10, 2026, Google raised YouTube Premium in the US from $13.99 to $15.99 per month and to $159.99 per year, the Family plan from $22.99 to $26.99, and the student plan from $7.99 to $8.99 — its first major US hike since 2023, paired with longer unskippable ads on the free tier to drive conversions.
Can you turn off Google's Gemini and AI search?
Mostly no. There is no user setting to disable AI Overviews — as of July 10, 2026 AI answers are the default for every query worldwide, and avoiding them requires workarounds like the 'Web' filter. In Workspace, Gemini was folded into every Business and Enterprise plan in January 2025 at a 17-22% price increase; an admin can disable the features, but the bill stays the same. Publishers fare no better: the crawl opt-out is all-or-nothing at the site level and does not cover the Gemini app.
Key Initiatives
- 01
Transformed search results into an ad-filled maze requiring 4 scrolls to see organic results
- 02
Pioneered 'self-preferencing' to push Google products above better alternatives
- 03
Created SEO arms race that made the internet objectively worse for everyone
- 04
Killed Google Reader to force users into algorithmic feeds they can monetize
- 05
Designed 'featured snippets' to steal content so users never visit actual websites
- 06
Hiked YouTube Premium on April 10, 2026 — Individual $13.99 → $15.99, Family $22.99 → $26.99, Premium Lite $7.99 → $8.99 — while simultaneously lengthening unskippable ad blocks on the ad-supported tier that Premium was positioned against
- 07
Rolled out 90-second unskippable ad blocks on connected-TV YouTube in early 2026 — Premium was recast from 'convenience' to 'ransom,' with the free tier engineered to be intolerable enough that the hike pays for itself in conversions within two quarters
- 08
Folded Gemini into every Workspace Business and Enterprise plan in January 2025, retiring the optional $20-30 per user add-on and raising all base prices 17-22% (existing customers from March 17, 2025) — with no AI-free tier, so an admin who disables every Gemini feature still pays the AI price
- 09
Replaced Google Assistant with Gemini across Android through 2025, and from July 7, 2025 granted Gemini default access to Phone, Messages, and WhatsApp 'whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off' — shipping the integration as an email announcement rather than a question
- 10
Made AI-generated answers the default for every search query worldwide by July 10, 2026, pushing organic links below the fold with no user setting to turn it off — only workarounds like the 'Web' filter, whose existence as a third-party listicle genre ('7 methods to disable AI Overviews') is its own verdict — while publisher clicks fell 58%, People Inc. reported 800 million lost Google visits, and Penske Media (Rolling Stone, Variety, Billboard) sued, calling the feature 'cannibalizing'; the publisher opt-out Google offers is all-or-nothing at the site level and does not cover the Gemini app
“Users kept asking how to turn it off. We logged every one of those searches as an AI engagement. Adoption has never been stronger.”
S. Pichai
Chief Information Reorganizer
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The Extraction Index is EnshitifAi's subjective editorial opinion, grounded in the dated, publicly documented corporate behaviour described on this page. It is not a measurement of Google's revenue, profit, or conduct, and it is not reported by or endorsed by Google. EnshitifAi is a satirical parody publication.