Any retirement celebration is a bittersweet affair, particularly when the guest of honor isn’t quite ready to say goodbye. But in certain moments like this one, it becomes clear that a new generation is ready to take the reins. Painful as it may be to admit, it’s time to hand them over.

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For a quarter century now, you’ve had a tremendous run as our beloved and indispensable search tool. But now that your retirement appears as imminent as your replacement is inevitable, we thought we’d drop a line.

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(Sure, we may not technically be invited to the retirement party. But since we’re posting this online, we’re sure you’ll see it seconds later.)

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What a journey it’s been, old friend. You were a fearless pioneer who plunged forth into the wild and untamed landscape of the Gore-era internet, bringing order and utility to the digital chaos. You gave us answers with seemingly impossible speed, which our huffing and puffing dial-up modems appreciated.

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Amid the ever-expanding universe of all things cyber, you provided a welcome blend of focus and restraint: just a single text box surrounded by an expanse of white space and suspended above two buttons. (One of them even had the flinty Eastwoodian charm to ask if we were feeling lucky—and more often than not, we absolutely were.)

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Your creators even coined a motto that cast you in the eternal battle of good and evil, leaving no doubt which side you’d strive to take. And your mission seemed to grasp the responsibility of your newfound power and influence. Anyone could merely organize the world's information; you would aim to make it universally accessible and useful.

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Sure, you faced competitors, but in time, essentially vanquished them. Short of a pure monopoly, you enjoyed everything a product could ask for: unmatched global influence, a captive audience, and the power to shape both minds and markets. Hell, you even had your own verb!

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But in time, something changed. Blame it on the insatiable maw of capitalism, but the moment the first sponsored link appeared on a results page, your role in the world began to shift—from a trusted guide to a gatekeeper-for-hire in thrall to the highest bidder.

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You remember what went down then. A winner-takes-all environment took hold, arms races ensued, and we as users found ourselves adrift in a sea of paid-for content. No, the internet was never a place of purity or unassailable truth. But as your algorithms evolved over time, serving a good answer became secondary to serving a well-paying sponsor.

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With that shift came a diminishment in online content. The web, once filled with fresh perspectives from millions of newly liberated writers, was gradually taken over by sites and bots eager to curry your favor. Their prose became twisted into an SEO pretzel more concerned with keyword stuffing than human connection.

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Now, as with any retirement, a younger and more agile workforce is jockeying its way to the top. The AI chatbots on the rise are able to cut through the sponsor clutter and bring users to the truth in seconds. Their facility to grasp and respond to human queries was once the sole domain of search engine juggernauts like yourself. But now their charm is seriously winning people over—and drawing them away from you.

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Yes, the young talent on track to supplant you has its shortcomings today. It’s essentially fresh out of school, in need of lots more polish—and plenty less hallucinating. We users will have new levels of navigating ahead, from data privacy and misinformation to the digital divide. Sexy and young can be enticing, but as you well know, building real trust takes time.

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All that said, we’re here to celebrate your tremendous contributions over the years. You revolutionized the way people interact with information, which alone makes you a first-ballot hall of famer next to Gutenberg’s press. You showed us a path to a new world—even when few of us knew the first step to take.

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And from a business perspective, not only have you minted your share of billionaires, but your contributions have funded legions of new innovations and that will benefit your company well beyond your final day at the office. They may even get ahead of this AI thing after all, despite an uneven start. They’ve certainly got the talent—and, thanks largely to you, no shortage of capital.

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So on this august occasion, we salute your remarkable achievements. We hope your replacements treat you with the respect you’ve earned. Look us up sometime.

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Oh, and remember back in the day, when you used to ask if we felt lucky? Having known you, we always will.

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Indelibly yours,

Matt, Mike, Thom & Jeff