SearchEngines are going to be a new platform. And there're gonna be PlatformWars.
All big InternetPlayas wanna be involved.
December 2004 : The industry is ready for an architecture war
This is a very good article about the coming war for standard APIs in the search space ie SearchEngines and SearchEngine-like interfaces to other databases and devices. Good on what's needed, what MicroSoft usually do in their PlatformWars and what Google need to do to compete. (GoogleWillRuleTheWeb)
Look at this table of the various things / areas to be searched :
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/images/fugeson20105.gif
Other interesting areas