Most people have trouble doing that for investors, let alone potential competitors. That's because most people don't understand just how unimportant ideas are.

Most people have trouble doing that for investors, let alone potential competitors. That's because most people don't understand just how unimportant ideas are. Seriously, even if pg & co decided that the next application process would be completely public, I still wouldn't consider it a big deal. Anyone can say "I have an idea, I'm going to build X". Fewer can actually do it. Fewer still have the drive (masochism?) to keep trying and trying to get people to actually use it for months and months when it looks like nobody cares at all.