PageRank, although deceptively simplistic now (much like the concept of gravity), was much more difficult to invent than to understand. Starting your own Google

PageRank, although deceptively simplistic now (much like the concept of gravity), was much more difficult to invent than to understand. Starting your own Google 20 years ago would have been out of reach of your everyday CS student at the time, even though PageRank is the only thing you would have to “invent” per se (and even though today it is simple enough of a concept to be taught in undergrad). Today, starting a Google is even harder because of Google’s moat and the advancements such as the deep learning infrastructure used for ranking pages (which still can be replicated if you throw a few Stanford grads at the problem — they don’t even have to be budding Larry Pages in aptitude — but a working replica isn’t nearly enough to compete with Google’s foothold in the market).