Would You Pay for Ad-Free Search? Former Head of Google Ads Says the Results Are Worth It

According to Inc., a search engine named Neeva that, ironically, carries no advertising may be worth paying for. Along with co-founder Vivek Raghunathan, another ex-Googler, he believes consumers will willingly pay $4.95 a month for a search engine that protects their privacy while returning results designed to meet their needs rather than maximize ad revenues. VC firms including Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners (where Ramaswamy is a venture partner) have bet more than $77 million that he’s right.

Search–and online experience in general–is bad and getting worse. That’s the premise behind Neeva. There’s an inherent conflict of interest every time you enter a term into Google and the search giant, through its algorithms, has to choose whether to prioritize you or its advertisers. In effect, Neeva’s founders argue, you become the product that Google is selling to advertisers, who are its actual customers. “Neeva was born out of this realization that we had that search had become more about serving advertisers than about really serving users,” Ramaswamy said in an interview at the recent Web Summit conference. “It was also a reaction to ads taking over our online life.”

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