That is pure nostalgia talking. I strongly suspect that if you did you would be appalled and want to switch back after only a few searches. Search in 2016 is leaps and bounds beyond what it was in 2006.

This is very much a YMMV thing, but what improvements have you seen?

If the internet was 1 page 10years ago today it is 10 million pages. So today Google search is a lot better. Its not that Google search has detiorated its the web that has to much useless data. I still am able to find what I am looking for in the first 5 results for most things. 10 years ago had to go to the 2nd or 3rd page for some obscure queries. Now it's a lot better at answering direct questions as well instead of just giving results.