The same could be said about Wikipedia. If we all chip in (code, governance and money), we can make it happen. I am part of two coops and one LLC that back FOSS

The same could be said about Wikipedia. If we all chip in (code, governance and money), we can make it happen. I am part of two coops and one LLC that back FOSS projects. I even make a living out of it. There may be data issues (Google can easily buy datasets), software issues (good algorithms and fighting spam) and probably many other issues. Many people probably do not feel enough incentive to re-create Google. It works well enough and is not irritating enough. Then again, search and maps/directions are pretty much the only services I use. For mapping projects that do not require directions, I use OSM-based solutions. For email I use a home-hosted Zimbra VM, for chat I use Mattermost and IRC, for news I use a few websites (most aggregators suck and just become echo-bubbles). etc.