You do know that Mint makes a decent amount of money via search referrals which is basically the same thing as this new Unity feature. And that's not enough income so they also persistently ask for donations. Would you rather have Amazon search results in your Dash (which can be useful and can easily be removed) or would you rather have Clem asking you for money when ever you visit the official distro website?
Linux Mint isn't any more of a non-profit than Canonical is. Both are companies that are trying to bring in enough income to pay a decent living wage to their employees, while still providing a bunch of free stuff to their users.
I've noticed several design suggestions in your code.