Google is Becoming Useless

It has become increasingly frustrating to search on Google. Until about a year and a half ago it was still possible to do a search, and find a decent mix of both non-commercial and commercial links. These days, a search on Google mostly produces sites selling stuff. For example, I was trying to research a pair of tennis shoes for my nephew. Typing "boys tennis shoes" in Google's search box returned a page on which every single link points to a shopping site. "Boys tennis shoes reviews" was not better: with the exception of a few lame epinion entries on single brands of tennis shoes there, nothing in the ranked results represented information about shoes rather than opportunities to buy shoes. "Boys tennis shoes comparisons"? Nope -- I got the same result. The experience was truly frustrating. This caused me to reflect that many of my searches on Google lately have been fruitless and time-consuming -- and equally frustrating. Is Google Froogle? I doubt the intent is evil. But maybe the link relevancy model is starting to break down, and the time for a new and improved search engine has arrived.