The Web is slow-motion collapsing for multiple reasons, but at the heart of it all is a little known system: the Search/Browser Levy.

Over five billion people use the web through browsers which they never pay for, despite browser engines being complex and costly products. This is possible because browser vendors and search engine providers have developed a funding system — the search levy — in which search engines pay browsers (including public-interest ones like Mozilla Firefox) for traffic under specific conditions. This arrangement has succeeded in keeping browsers free and cutting-edge, but over two decades of operation it has also created an artificial monopoly over search with cascading negative consequences. We need not eliminate the levy system — rather, we can reform it so that it works for the web and those who use it.