We had the same problem. We had a 50% original idea, and our competitor was the rest of the idea that we knew could be better.
We used it as a basis for solving disagreements. Whenever we couldn't agree or decide what to do, we just say "what is our competitor doing?" It isn't about copying per se, it's about keeping momentum and getting past decision problems.
Google should seriously invest a little bit of money and pay to have the site design for Matt Cutts look better. Add a custom design (not a template) and maybe say somewhere that he works for Google. I've sent some customers to that site, and they don't take it seriously.
An interviewer [...] would be videotaped conducting an interview via a long-distance phone call to the interviewee in another part of the world. This interviewee [...] would be videotaped as he was being interviewed. This videotape would then be sent to the interviewer’s city and synchronized with the videotape of the interviewer [...] and the higher-quality sound of the videotapes would be used instead of the telephone audio.