I was surprised to hear former Google CEO Eric Schmitt publicly lament lost opportunities and missed chances to catch Facebook the other day. I used to envy Google and the vast digital empire that Schmitt commanded. Google had one of the most intricate monopolies of all time. It had the most impressive dataset the world had ever seen; the most sophisticated algorithm to make sense of it; an audience of a billion users expressing their interest; and more than a million advertisers bidding furiously to reach those consumers at just the right moment. And that’s why I used to think that Google was unstoppable. Until I realized one very important thing: Google’s revered and unparalleled dataset is increasingly dating itself as an ossified relic akin to the Dead Sea Scrolls—outshined by the freshness of the living, breathing organism that is the social Web.