The first time I realized that Google search was bad was when del.icio.us got big. I was an avid user - and I stopped using Google except for basic things. You

The first time I realized that Google search was bad was when del.icio.us got big. I was an avid user - and I stopped using Google except for basic things. You could search tags on del.icio.us - and the results were incredibly good, far better than Google, especially for niche areas. I think, unfortunately, this kind of curated, social approach to search will never be compatible with monetization by ads. I'm not quite sure how to make a search engine profitable without significantly distorting its results. Maybe, depressingly, Google is the best thing possible given the constraint of making a profit?