> But that means that you have not created an actual search program. You are just using googles data.

No, if your learning system is working properly you should be using Google's data only to the extent it is legitimately observable and more relevant than anything else you're feeding your system. And, for lots of searches, Google's data leave much room for other sources to be more relevant. In the limiting case, when you're feeding your system everything that Google is feeding its, you should almost never return Google-derived knowledge because your system should almost always be able to come up with greater relevance from knowledge derived from primary sources.

Your final question is on the right track, but I'd suggest a small tweak: If Google didn't exist, would the system still offer highly relevant results and, if Google did exist, would the system be able to learn from Google-supplied knowledge, to the extent allowed by law and terms of service and so forth, to offer results at least as relevant?