From my experience back in the pre-google days was that I'd have to open up five or more links to ever see anything worthwhile and this was back in the day when page titles had zero relevance too.

Plus, I haven't seen the google front page to search in months, so that's a definite +10 for usability in my books. If I was smarter (or more pro-procrastination) I'd have a link to google news on my chrome splash screen.