This is a heck of a lot more than just a few engineers starting up their own Google (or attempting to, anyway). Monier is involved in the project, the name might not ring a bell, but he worked with the likes of Altavista when it was the Google of its era. Arguably, some of Monier's innovations later led to Google. There are other names in there, just as bright.
Search engines are constantly involving and there are some very bright minds behind Cuil, just as there are at Google. Google has already started to show some signs of problems, though as with anything these can be worked out. I think the time is ripe if the competitor brings something new to the table.
Microsoft and Yahoo don't get it - so it's not like Google has simply been dominating the excellent competition out there. Google is indeed a juggernaut, and I don't want my last statement to take away from that or try and diminish them, but even a company Google could go down the drain with the innovations that are out there. Google has built a monopoly, but fortunately no company can ever really get a monopoly on ideas in this market.
Only time will tell if these folks succeed, but this is not just another search engine copy. I, for one, welcome the competition.
I'll stick with my traditional Google search.
