MAYBE, Google wants to make their keyword tool more targeted for adwords users rather than SEO-ers.
That is exactly the answer, coupled with collecting data on the side. But if you notice the move. . its great for buying adwords. They target small long tail better and you can probably increase your clicks etc.
What it does to a person doing SEO is block them from seeing quality high volume results. Thus i'm hunting for high search numbers. . not targeted users. . well thats gone. They give me back shit results compared to the old tool.
Honestly i can guess high volume results for my keyword better then they will ever report back to me now. Time to get a new tool if your not buying adwords.
All in all its a win for google. They will increase revenue in a number of ways.
1 - force you to use their interior system and dedicate time, more likely to transfer in and buy
2 - give better targeted results to those who buy adwords, thus people buy more and compete more increasing bids and revenue
3 - collect your data to their database for better targeted advertising to the user in multiple ways.
4 - collect aggregate data to be a better predictor of patterns in large data that are useful for a lot of reasons
5 - knock back the people doing SEO because seo people are of little value to the big G. They don't pay them any money, and if you game the system you help to disrupt their credibility.
All in all no need to bitch. . whose got a better solution now. I'm started looking at sem rush. Anyone else want to chime in a good way to find other high volume keywords related to your niche now that the old gw kw tool is gone?