In 2010 there were dozens of online writing sites. Many people made enough money to pay their bills.
To earn $300 U.S. dollars a month writing online was not remarkable.
Think of it; Triond, Wikinut, Hubpages, Factoidz, Burkisa, and many others, existed. All in competition with each other, all trying to get the most users, all paying.
Google decided to launch a site which didn’t pay. To do this meant it would have to destroy paying sites.
Do No Evil?