> Naturally, this would be a good time for a competitor to capture market share. Problem is, the infrastructure behind a search engine like Google is gigantic.

> Naturally, this would be a good time for a competitor to capture market share. Problem is, the infrastructure behind a search engine like Google is gigantic. A competitor would first have to cover all of the basic features that Google users are used to before they would be able to compete on better ranking algorithms. That is why the basic rule of dethroning an incumbent is to not go into competition heads-on. If someone is successful in shaking Google, then it won't be a search engine company. That company will build some different product first not competing with Google at all, become a leader in that and then, if business model supports, build a better search engine. It is a long process, but that is how it usually works. Google is a classic example of this way of getting at Microsoft. After search, it tried to eat Microsoft's lunch by developing products to compete with MS-Office, and also ventured into mobile and laptop OS.