One of many things that Google has going for them is the immense amount of data they have collected about common searches over the years. This way they can cache common search terms and refine their algos for those commonly searched terms. They know what searches are happening constantly and can work on refining those to provide the most reliable results.

A new SE starting out doesn’t have this repository of knowledge. When Google started out they quietly gathered information and had geniuses working out algos behind the scenes that would solve for the problems. Problems that many of us wouldn’t even understand (ok, those with superior math/computer science skills, maybe).

It takes mucho resources: time, brainpower, and lots and lots of data to write intelligent search engine software. It is not a trivial task to write a set of algos on par with Google or we would have seen a zillion Google clones by now.

There are tons of simple/basic search engines out there, but to get on the level with Google it’s going to take many months, most likely years and mega $$$ to compete on their level.

Remember, Yahoo was king of the hill while Google worked quietly to build a monster following.

The same could happen with a new search enging startup.

However, the kind of computer scientists needed to solve for the data at the Google level are in very high demand and not easy to come by (or cheap), so whoever bankrolls this project to compete with Google is going to need some really deep pockets.

Microsoft could buy their way into this, they certainly have the money, and don’t think for a minute that it isn’t a high priority for them.

Yahoo is also trying to work this out, but it might be too little too late for them.

None of this is to say there aren’t a couple MIT whiz kids in some basement working up a set of algos that will someday blow away Google.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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