The article would have you believe drugs is all they sold like it was a drugsite. No. They sold all kinds of stuff. Some stuff legal, some not, some legal or not depending on where you are in the world, and some stuff was not even for sale. They had free stuff and forums to talk. It was basically craigslist without regulation. Some stuff like Cuban cigars or fireworks for example you can't put on craigslist. Or on craigslist hookers have to pretend like they aren't hookers and offer massages and stuff, but the two sites were not really that different.
I don't do drugs myself. I'm Mormon. But it is pretty crazy how they spin the moral panic to trick ppl that have never seen something into thinking its the worst thing ever.
Google doesn't make profit by being involved with illegal drugs, breh...
There are all sorts of illegal drug sites that can be accessed directly from google, they are just not very safe or secure. Google gets traffic to/from them same as any other site.
You can also use Google DNS to access those sites directly via address bar.
I'd bet a large portion of the silkroad clientle located Tor through Google, or perhaps a wiki or news article that they got to through google. I'd be surprised if google didn't facilitate some part of at least every 10th transaction if it were to be investigated.
But its ridiculous to hold Google responsible, and thats my point. Its just an intermediary. Like, if you meet a rapist on E-Harmony thats not the websites fault. The guy wasnt actually selling drugs. He ran a website.