Curation is unlikely to be helpful when it comes to a search engine of any decent size, in my opinion. However, I agree Google's results are getting worse, but

Curation is unlikely to be helpful when it comes to a search engine of any decent size, in my opinion. However, I agree Google's results are getting worse, but I think that is more a result of the way they weight results, and personalize them. Covering personalization - I've yet to see it work effectively for a large audience. It does drive certain markets, but by whales rather than everyone. So most people get things badly, and a few are driven towards a certain goalpoint, in Google's case adverts, where they tend to make clicks or purchases of the intended partners. On weighting results - Google seems to have stopped weighting results for relevance a long time ago. They seem to prioritise things differently now. Exactly how I'm not sure, but it does seem to include Recent Events, using technology Google has a vested interest in, and Partners, and all those get addressed before relevancy. If you can solve the relevancy problem (which is huge, from above, Recent does not always mean Relevant, but it can), then you can certainly attract the technological crowd. Google seems to have aimed their search engine at popular events, news and social media. Where would you aim your search engine?