Jakob Nielsen complains that search engines “are sucking out too much of the Web’s value, acting as leeches on companies that create the very source materials the search engines index.” He’s worried that search engines “build their business on other websites’ content,” and that “paid search confiscates too much of a website’s value.”

Reading between the lines, I think Nielsen’s complaint is not about search engines per se, but about “Web 2.0″ and the evolving semantic web. If I’m right, his concern is also applicable to RSS (which he notes that he hasn’t researched yet) and tagging… we’re moving away from “site” and “page” as controlling metaphors, and focusing more on information, less on presentation. Nielsen’s been so focused on web page and site usability that he’s only just beginning to get the message.