And therein lies the rub for competitors: to even get a tryout, they are competing not with a first search at Google, but against a refined second search at Google, when the user is already staring at a page of results there. And even if disastified with that page, they're probably good enough to hint how the query should be changed.
Great insight. Search used to seem such a fragile business, because where's the sustainable competitive advantage when there're no switching costs? When better search comes along, everyone switches!
But... unless the competitor is significantly superior, why switch? So Google just needs to be good enough such that no one is significantly superior in a way that makes a difference to users. If you're technically better, but it doesn't really help anyone, it doesn't harm Google.
