I'm guessing SI will go the same way as Metacrawler, another of their affiliates.
Metacrawler was once arguably the best search engine out there. It is all that I used. Then, I noticed that the same search was frequently yielding large differences in the number of hits. The kicker was when I noticed that it didn't matter whether I selected "all" or "any" in my search criteria...it still looked for "any," which makes a big difference. I emailed Metacrawler a few times pointing these things out, but never got a response.
Then, looking for a temporary alternative, I discovered Google....and I have never looked back.
The same will probably happen with SI. Important features will stop being supported, admin will become irresponsive to user issues. People will look for a temporary alternative, and will just stay there.
Interestingly, it appears that there is a seller's market right now for SI. I think that both Matt and Bob have made discrete inquiries, and probably a few other folks that we don't know about. If Jain wanted to sell, now would be the time.
