I would be a paying search engine subscriber, even at higher price points if the quality of the results was satisfactory and the following points were met:

(a) everything is over SSL, (b) there are no advertisements, (c) there is a strict pro-user privacy policy without keeping logs and user profiling.

I think the saying "If you are not paying for the product, you are the product" has a strong element of truth in it in most cases.