I don't understand what's he's trying to say, though I get the feeling that the author misses the point of why search is good. Good search has very little to do

I don't understand what's he's trying to say, though I get the feeling that the author misses the point of why search is good. Good search has very little to do with the words - most search engines got that part mostly right, all independently. What makes search great, the real underlying principle, is the link graph, the authority measurement. What Google was able to do was not just make a vast catalog, but to sort it by goodness. You can wrap up that measure in a search box or whatever UI you want.