[researchers]

That's definitely one way to do it. Our approach is not to literally run a concierge search engine, but rather build up intuitions on how humans effectively find knowledge on the Web and then build tools to make that easier.

Is that the end-game of the startup you mentioned?

[Seirdy]

How can users be sure that "results" aren't sponsored?

I imagine that whoever runs such a service would get hounded by paid placement opportunities if it takes off. A similar issue plagues browser extension devs.