I'm surprised - first and foremost, by the fact that content producers feel that they should be compensated by a search engine for exposing people to their content.

Second, by the fact that Australia - a country with a respectable population of great software engineers - isn't responding by competing for local users with local solutions.

Third, by the idea that there are so many people who don't realize that the search algorithms are guided by usage. If more people use a search engine, there's more usage information which modifies the search engine behaviour. One of Google's biggest strengths is that they invite us to contribute, to leave reviews and update incorrect map markers etc. If everyone switches to another provider, that other provider would enjoy the network effect advantage and Google's data would quickly become outdated.