So we basically need to go back to the days when Yahoo! was simply a directory of links to cool websites. Curated by humans.

Would be nice, but today's Yahoo would be SEO-steamrolled too I'm sure.

IMHO what is needed is an open, FOSS, royalty-free database-like format for URLs and descriptions NOT intimately connected with the presentation layer (HTML) like RSS.

Open Graph is kinda the start of what to collect per URL.

Then we need browsers to be able to add/delete/update on this database, let you search through it locally, and allow import/export of portions or the entirety of this database.

This is in direct contradiction to today's walled gardens, so it's not ever going to come from FAANG and friends.

Google used to have this.

https://web.archive.org/web/20101126162900/http://www.google...

TBH, yes. The state of web search is so bad that, even if today you find something, you might not find it again in 2 days.

But decentralised on the edge network (top edge of browser, below the url bar)

Dmoz ftw!

Webrings rise once again

Do not mention he old magic to me, I was there when it was written!