Forum Moderators: bakedjake
What we need now is for a couple or few 15-20 year old geniuses to kick out a search engine that will be a serious competitor for the big3. Everything has its time and as went Alta Vista, so will go Google!
If Google had launched in 1995 or 2002 I doubt it would have been nearly as successful. The company caught the crest of the wave and became THE ONE search engine to all the people taking their first online steps in 1999/2000 who still think there is one operating system, one browser, one MP3 player etc.
In some ways the Google guys were lucky to be there at the right time. But Google is more of an advertising business than purely search. Most of the search ideas I've seen over the last few years have lacked one critical aspect - a way to reliably make money.
The garage start-up myth is a good one. But very few people have the singularity of purpose of Steve Jobs or the technological brilliance of Steve Wozniak. The Microsoft history is a better one for showing how "who you know" is often more important than quality of product.
Ideas are easy. Successfully implementing them is the hard part.
Regards...jmcc