Take a look at the present situation and realize that Google has become a giant company.  That fact alone doesn’t scare me at all.  There have been and there will be bigger companies out there.  If you want to compete with Google you need to have a plan, and we have a few ideas!

  • First we need to recognize that Google does not have a monopoly, just a very dominant market-share.  I think Google themselves would be the first to acknowledge that making a competing search engine is possible.  They probably welcome competition.
  • Second, we need to pay careful attention to the profit situation.  Google didn’t become mega-rich because its search engine is so awesome, they did it by selling ads!  Adwords allows ordinary people to rent a link to themselves on search results pages for any search phrases they choose.  You only pay when somebody actually clicks the link!  This idea is what Google did differently, and changed the game.
  • Third, recognize the problems with Google.  Sometimes it’s hard to find flaws with existing products.  Don’t think about what is wrong with the search process; instead think about what could be better!  It truly is the little things that make a big difference.  Think creatively!  I give a few examples from other web sites.  Amazon’s recommendations often think you want to buy a “blue” version of something because you bought a “red” version.  Maybe this works for them, but it does make me question their recommendations.  Ebay doesn’t allow you to only look at negative or neutral feedback.  You have to go through page after page of meaningless “great ebayer!” to actually find the truth.  These are problems you can only see if you compare what exists with how things could be.
  • I’m sure there are thousands of computer scientists out there that could easily have implemented the search algorithms necessary to produce a competitor to Google.  When some idea finally comes along to compete with Google, it will also be easy to program.  Sometimes a project like this just needs to get a little push in the right direction, like Linux.  Linux didn’t get created to compete with Windows.  Someone just decided one day that they wanted a free Unix operating system.

Well, today I am DECIDING to compete with Google.

Post any ideas please.  I want this to be a collaborative thing with everyone out there.