Why wouldn't google work without javascript? Just use some forms, submit the text the user entered, get back a page with the search results...

They don't want your patronage if they can't track you and commodify you.

OP is right. a quick google (hehe) shows you they require it as of 2024.

But you don't need JS to make a search engine work. I'm pretty sure I've used links2 in the past to google things just fine. Google Search would work fine without JS, Google just wants to track people

Google is an advertising company. Not a search engine company.