Ask Google

This has probably been obvious to Google for awhile, but an article in the New York Times today brought home the point to me that Google's search service isn't as much about returning web pages anymore as it is about answering questions.

The initial -- and important -- role of search engines was to make the tremendous bulk of web content findable. Without a link and without knowing an exact URL, a web page is invisible. Search engines still serve the purpose of returning web pages, of course, but over the past fifteen years, web users have grown accustomed to using search engines to find answers to questions.

For these cases, Google can skip the whole web search step and just answer the question. From the Times story: "Search for Barack Obama’s birthday or the local weather, for instance, and Google shows you the answer above search results." This process leaves other content providers out and keeps users on Google pages.