I think pg is missing something important here. The reason Google was able to beat Yahoo, Altavista, Ask, etc. was not just because they had a better formula —

I think pg is missing something important here. The reason Google was able to beat Yahoo, Altavista, Ask, etc. was not just because they had a better formula — it was also because they started in the era where 'search' was still seen as secondary to 'portals' by the big guys. Had these companies known how important search is to the internet back then, they would've copied Google's secret sauce and crushed it long before it could suck up their traffic. This isn't going to happen again. Google isn't going to sit around twiddling its thumbs while a competitor develops a better algorithm. You have to attack the problem from a different angle entirely (make something that looks nothing like a search engine), I don't think a niche market is going to be enough. Perhaps you just want to make something that scares Google into acquiring you, rather than actually bettering the situation. If that's the case, I implore you to think of doing better ways to spend your life.