Throwaway98123

It's nice to have alternatives for something that's so fundamental to how we use the internet.

Google works well today, but what about 5 years from now, or 10 years from now? What if you need to be signed into Google+ to Google search? What if your Google+ account needs to be tied to a mobile phone? What if Google has limited search, and you need to own a Chromebook or Android device for the full search experience and viewing more than 10 results?

Competition keeps them in check from doing anything outrageous, and then if they decide to anyway, we have other choices we can migrate towards.

Agreed, and I think this applies to nearly everything in life. Everyone can learn, but it takes a certain something, which you can't learn, to become great.

I spent years in life drawing classes, about 6 hours a week. There was always a clear divide between those that were great, and everyone else. Those that were great, reached that level quickly, and everyone else improved, but remained slightly above average at best.

Or, take public speaking. We can agree Elon Musk is a talented man, and he has more practice when it comes to public speaking in real world scenarios than most people in this world. However, he's just an average public speaker. A decade from now, he'll likely improve a bit, but still remain average. Why is that? Why are there high school students that can take a public speaking course one semester, and give a better speech or presentation? I think they just possess a quality he's missing when it comes to speaking.

Fortunately, everything in life requires a different set of attributes. There are many people out there that can never be brilliant programmers, and likewise, many of us could never be notable in improv, or stand up comedy.