Although I thought the article was very perceptive, it's a wierd feeling to think about google being given a run for their money. Currently the popular perspective (which, of course, does not necessarily translate to "accurate perspective") is that google is a bastion impervious to seige. The points made are valid, though. Google is absolutely a general-purpose search, and when looking for something specific one is probably more likely to achieve effecient results with a more specialized tool. I don't expect Google to be blind to this fact, though. The author of the article (or at least his prime interview, VC Gus Tai) believes that Google would drown if they tried to enter the specialization arena, but I think the possibility is there for an entrance by the search-giant. What if they were to extract context from the keywords entered and offer an option to narrow search results to one of a set of more "vertical" flavours?