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But they have to be different - that's how things improve. If they were exactly the same then what difference does it make for the consumer which product they b

• fragmede 7y ago
  better, yes. the issue is that it has to be monumentally better in order to complete. Say I came up with a new algorithm for search, and an angel funded me at the same level that Google started off at. In order for MyNewSearchCo to be able to competitive, my algorithm needs to be 1,000% better; 10 or 50 or 100 percent isn't enough. Considering that I'd also have to build my own ad-network and crawl all of the Internet, I'm not sure it's even possible to compete at this point. Especially once Google sees me as a threat, the sheer amount of resources (and not just technical) they could bring to bear against a small dozen person start-up is ludicrous. That is where the harm comes in - as a consumer, I'd love a 50% better search (insofar as thats readily quantifiable), but the current architecture of the market ends up preventing this from happening!