Hmm... I spent 12 years building my business and you tell me I wasn't passionate. We actually did beat Google but in the enterprise space.
The best way to take on Google is to render web search obsolete (the same way Microsoft is becoming irrelevant because the PC is becoming irrelevant), not by trying to match with limited resources and knowledge what they do very very well with enormous resources and know-how. Thinking otherwise is not being passionate, it's being presumptuous.
Yes, change the way the game is being played, but don't play the game that Google is playing. Change the way people search for things. Right now everything is based on the keyword search, there has to be a better way. Make the web irrelevant the same way that gopher became irrelevant. I really don't want to be using a web browser 10 years from now.
The best way to take on Google is to render web search obsolete (the same way Microsoft is becoming irrelevant because the PC is becoming irrelevant), not by trying to match with limited resources and knowledge what they do very very well with enormous resources and know-how. Thinking otherwise is not being passionate, it's being presumptuous.