Search -> Yahoo
Android -> Apple
Maps -> MapQuest
Mail -> HotMail
Chrome -> Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera
Yes, Google has improved on some of these things (except smartphones), but they seem to fail to bring anything entirely new and revolutionary to the market. Apple has released more innovative stuff this last year than Google has in a decade. Even their top "research" phd-holding peeps don't come up with much these days. The researchers at Microsoft are winning awards for all kinds of cool stuff while Google is getting left behind. Those little text ads are really the only thing they have going for them. I maintain my assertion that Google is a hack company based on web advertising, existing behind a veil of academic, elitist, technobull. Right now they are scrambling to buy companies because they know they don't have anything to bring to the market. Top employees are jumping ship. I give them 5 years before their stock is down 75%+.