The reason why Google is already facing mid-life crises is that the pace of innovation has sped up so much. It used to be that a company could build something l

The reason why Google is already facing mid-life crises is that the pace of innovation has sped up so much. It used to be that a company could build something like Google and sit on its laurels for 20 years. IBM was the undisputed king for at least 50 years, and Microsoft was king for about 20. The problem is not other search engines, but disruptive innovation that makes search engines obsolete. And this disruptive innovation seems to decrease its cycle time by about 50% each generation. So after Google has been the leader for <10 years, they are already worried about something new coming along and knocking them off their perch. And I think that fear is justified.