I hope smaller search engines like alltheweb and such becomes more popular so that I wont be so fu**ing dependent on g***le. But I don't think such thing will happen.
Barriers of entry are HUGE. Without billions to spend on infrastructure and advertising you can forget about making it (only exception could be when a country has some suppressing government that can intervene).
Disagree. In the field of IT (and technology) a small start-up can cause a lot of stress along the "big guys". If and when a small start-up comes up with a new way of searching (e.g. semantic searching), which generates better output, then they might gain a lot of marketshare. So you don't need a lot of money, just a good idea basicly.