In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes"-- Andy Warhol, 1968When Warhol made his oft-quoted prediction, he was referring to the ability of media to push anyone into the bright glare of the spotlight for a fleeting brush with celebrity. What he couldn't have anticipated was the strange twist the Web would throw on this issue. Viral fame doesn't depend on tightly controlled channels like newspapers and TV networks; it seeps, oozes and sometimes gushes, propelled by users.

There are many ways to slice and dice search query intent: Navigation vs. browsing. Entertainment vs. information. Commercial vs. non-commercial. Accordingly, there are many different types of search engines: General vs. vertical. Real-time vs. all-time. Assets vs. answers. Pages vs. people. Facts vs. decisions. Whenever a search startup goes out to raise money or a stalwart rebrands or advertises to steal share, it typically focuses on one of the aforementioned flavors of search and sprinkles on a dash of differentiation.Of course, the irony in all this is that Google already serves most, if not all, of the flavors above in …