Is search arbitrage ethical?
It depends on execution. Connecting an interested person to relevant advertisers through an honest advert and a useful page is ordinary marketing. Luring people with false promises, thin pages and confusing layouts so they click ads by mistake is not. The same model produces both, which is why opinions about the industry are so divided.
A fair test has three parts. Did the creative tell the truth about what the person would find? Did the page give them something of value, even briefly? Did the advertiser receive a visitor with real interest? If all three are yes, nobody was harmed.
Critics point out that much arbitrage content exists only to host ads, that it adds a middleman to a journey the user could have made directly, and that weak operators lean on clickbait. Defenders point out that it surfaces commercial intent in places where people were not searching. Both are right about parts of the market. The practical line is drawn by compliance rules and by whether advertisers see conversions.