I spent a few years working at a search startup. I would say Google is ready to squash competition like a bug but really you're more like a bug getting splatted

I spent a few years working at a search startup. I would say Google is ready to squash competition like a bug but really you're more like a bug getting splatted on their windscreen. Most of the time they don't even consider you to be competition. Maybe in some ways that's a good thing - if they don't consider you to be a threat then you've got some room to innovate. Until you get big enough that you show up on their radar... then they can just copy whatever you've been doing differently.