Comment by skissane

> search keeps getting worse

For a lot of use cases, you don't need a general purpose search engine – a search over a curated knowledge base works even better.

There are plenty of freely available data sets you can use, depending on the application; plus in many cases you will want to use internal-only knowledge bases containing non-public information (e.g. documentation for a corporation's internal systems and procedures). There are also many paid subscription domain-specific knowledge services available.