One can also interpret the growth as a failure from product p.o.v though it drives views.
With AI summaries being hit or miss, we may say users now need to do 20% more searches to find what they are looking for.
Numbers aren't always a good proxy for customer satisfaction.
This was literally their policy. Make the searches worse so people search more.
https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/
That's pure genius.
Make cars break faster so you can sell more cars.