[Sven7]

Which is one of the main reasons Google has no serious competition in search except possibly in China.

It is also why the rate of innovation in search isn't moving as fast as it can be moving.

If Google opened up (unlimited) web API access to their search interface, to say a large city for a year or two people would really get a taste of what innovation in search looked like.

And of course it would be in Google's interest cause search as a platform or marketplace is where the future of Google really lies. All the other advertising empire defending distractions like Android, Chrome and YouTube are really sideshows.