Large Search-Querry datasets

On a blog I recently visited, it was pointed out in context of a web search analysis study that: "This study also highlights the current situation in web-scale research: that only companies like Microsoft, Google or Yahoo! have access to the sheer volume of data needed to do such an analaysis." (sorry I do not remember the source of this, if it is ur blog please let me know, so I can reference you) This has been brought up numerous times in the past and I couldnt agree more. What is really very important is for society (/ internet users) to realise that they are the creators of the content and they should demand access to the agregatted datasets [Tapscott&Williams in Wikinomics - How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything]. Or in other words (since most people wouldnt know what to do with the datasets) some kind of compensation. This applies less to search engines, since they provide a free service, and applies more to other collaborative web 2.0 apps. However, search engines make money on advertising, so thats the reason why they are free to use, not because users are being compensated for the datasets that these search companies decide to store and aggregate.

My criticism is that search engines shouldn't keep the raw data hidden behind proprietary domains but open up to the world research community.