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Comment by 300bps | Hacker News Reader

Try building a search engine today. The barriers to entry are much harder.

I’ve often heard the saying how “everything easy has already been invented” and that it’s so much harder today to invent new things.

I think it’s a fallacy. Things were just as hard in the past.

I owned an ISP in 1998 and there were plenty of search engines at the time. Google invented something unique and innovative and they were rewarded tremendously for it. There were literally hundreds of other companies trying to do the same thing but Google was better. If it was low hanging fruit then Hotbot or any of the other major players could’ve done it.

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Doesn't that just prove the point though?

In 1998 there were plenty of search engines and their use was distributed more evenly. The internet was still fairly new and most people weren't online yet. It certainly wasn't an integral part of most people's life. Google came along and improved on the existing search engines and in doing so wiped out a lot of that competition, becoming what they are today.

A new search engine now has to compete with global network effects, orders of magnitudes more data, Android, and a complex web of interconnected functionality.

Even only looking at the advantage that Google Maps brings to the table totally blows past any barriers present in 1998. Sure, you could build a much better search engine but who's going to use it when it can't give them directions?

Then consider that if you look like you'll end up making some headway, you're likely to just get bought and killed off/integrated.

A new search engine now has to compete with global network effects, orders of magnitudes more data, Android, and a complex web of interconnected functionality.

Are you a pessimist in life? You’re focusing on only the negative aspects of starting a search engine today.

24 years after Google was formed we have orders of magnitude cheaper processing, orders of magnitude better AI, the ability to start small with cloud computing and work your way up from there. We have 24 years of search engine research to a large extent publicly available.

I really think all this “things would’ve been so much easier back then” are simply excuses as to why someone can’t do something today.

What alternative search engine which isn't Bing (including DuckDuckGo) have you used recently?

They do exist, have you heard of any of them?

We're growing a lot at you.com

Hey Richard, great to hear you guys are doing well! A search engine with more personal control over rests is certainly attractive.

My intention wasn't to dismiss the possibility of popular new search engines. Only to highlight that the environment is substantially more complex/challenging than in 1997.

>Google invented something unique and innovative and they were rewarded tremendously for it. There were literally hundreds of other companies trying to do the same thing but Google was better. If it was low hanging fruit then Hotbot or any of the other major players could’ve done it.

I actually think that their entrepreneur spirit and business attitude made them successful. Other guys thought of their search engines as of technical experiments and hobbies, they weren't serious about it. In another words Google cared more for innovating their search engine, making money and then reinvesting it back in R&D and staying ahead of everybody. The same story was with Microsoft and Digital Research; Bill Gates simply cared more business wise and was more fanatical in making money than Gary Kildall.

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