Well, that depends...
Making queries on google is never wrong. Read, study and assemble the text.
The problem is to copy excerpts exactly the same as what was written.
Now, writing about the same subject but in your words is not plagiarism. Since they are works being done and written from each one's point of view and words.
And in this case, whenever you copy something from the internet exactly like some excerpt, always use a quota using > in front of the text.
And as for starting from scratch.. Keep going, new people and friends will always emerge