A lot of people want to judge investors who passed on Google. They shouldn't. In VC you hit or miss, you win some you lose some. People judge investors who passed saying it was a "poor" decision. That's only because you have hindsight and hindsight is 20/20.

I am sure there were many other search plays at the time and picking from one was just like picking a crab from a barrel.

I doubt investors, who do this everyday and win some and lose some, worry all the time about why they passed on Google.