Yes there was. In 2005, when you founded a startup, you had to explain why Google couldn't smoosh you by cloning you and integrating with Gmail. And, moreover, they did exactly that to Kiko. Now that's not really the foremost question in people's minds.

I was there in 2005, never felt any google fear. The web is so huge and expanding at such a great rate (even more so in 2005) that anybody thinking google or any other site could control it or get all the market is really shortsighted.

Nobody thought Google could control the web. That wasn't the claim. The claim was, Google was sufficiently badass in 2005 that for any given idea, you got asked if this is so great, why can't Google notice it and do it faster better stronger. There were reasons that it couldn't for some ideas, obviously. But for others, like Kiko, it could and did.