I was being glib in the description but it’s not like PageRank is a crazy idea either, is it?

The reason I’m prodding at this is because there are different ways in which someone can fail to understand the value of an idea. The value proposition for Google doesn’t seem far-fetched at all, but I could believe that investors simply didn’t believe PageRank was a good enough idea to displace then market leaders.

first of all from our viewpoint PageRank doesn't seem like a crazy idea, I suppose at the time it would have seemed not crazy but interesting and unproved, thus very risky.

Furthermore it is my experience that people sometimes do not understand the value proposition of even simple things if those things are new, the value of the new must be demonstrated and often overwhelmingly.