I feel that one of the things preventing us from finding extraterrestrial life is that we are focusing on "intelligent" life living on "earth-like" planets with "similar" technology. We're looking through a very narrow window at the whole universe.
If you think about it, what percent of life on earth can be considered "intelligent?" Of one hundred million species on this planet, how many can be called "intelligent?" So why would we expect to find "intelligent" life on another planet.
That said, Who says life needs a planet to exist? Why not look at moons, asteroids, comets, etc...
There is life on this planet that exist simply because it can. Organisms that seem to thrive in the least habitable nooks and crevasses in the earth. Which says to me, life exist...everywhere. I accept that i could be wrong, but until we find life elsewhere, we can only imagine. What do you all think?