In a word yes. Google Scholar just celebrated with great fanfare, their 10th anniversary and in interview in Scientific american, the cofounder of Google Scholar said this In 2012 Google Scholar was removed from the drop-down menu of search options on Googleâs home page. Do you worry that Google Scholar might be downgraded or killed? No. Our team is continually growing, from two people at the start to nine now. People may have treated that menu removal as a demotion, but it wasnât really. Those menu links are to help users get from the home page to another service, so t emphasize the most-used transitions. If users already know to start with Google Scholar, t donât need that transition. Thatâs all it was. Page on scientificamerican.com He goes on to say costs are very low from Google's point of view and there is no incentive to monetize given the huge benefits. The Google Scholar blog is also constantly posting a good sign Google Scholar Blog
Google Scholar is a fantastic service and the benefits of using it are huge for many. I hope that Google will continue to make a valuable contribution in bringing academic research to the world and that more and more Google products will start showing up at the top page of search results. Many more things are likely to occur over the next few years. Google Scholar Blog So in the end Google Scholar has a life of sorts, it is being used regularly but may not be the highest valued service. But in its current iteration, at a service that is only supported by people working for Google, there's no reason it can't be a big service over the long haul. So if you use Google Scholar as the default search option, don't panic. There's little reason for that to happen or for it to be taken away any.