Mahalo.com is a different take on search and worth checking out. While although "human powered" results can never cover the breadth of Google. They might be able to compete on depth.

I once heard an an important realization from Jason Calacanis. He said that most search revenue is generated off just a few phrases. While you want to be useful with the ability to answer who shot Alexander Hamilton, the cash cows are in searches like home mortgage.