Oliver_Henniges - 5:47 pm on Aug 21, 2006 (gmt 0)

I also doubt enough people will be willing to submit the required data about themselves. Just think of that related discussion about AOL publishing that data-set of searches.

And MHes hits the nail on its head: Amazons algos have absolutely given up to identify my profile, they tend to present me products related to my last order now. As a matter of fact, I would even regard it an insult meanwhile, if a person (or even an algo) claimed to "understand" or categorize my personality. (I'm trying to do so for ages now;)

Therefore, although this makes me very sad, I believe that the only potential candidates for impacting Google's current near-monopoly of search must come from the pool of current search players.

Disagree. Hosting similar to the SETI-framework, algo-improvement similar to linux or any other open-source-project, additional human reviews or filters in analogy to dmoz or wiki.