Are Google SERPs some times human edited?

When you consider that the top 100 kw sectors (probably 1-2k unique kw's) receive 90-95% of the search traffic in google a month, it is a sure bet those 100 sectors are hand checked each and every major update (multiple times). I've heard the top 50 searches get checked - probably daily. By weeding out the bad sites in those searches, they can cut down on complaints and increase relevancy accross a broad range of kw's (see also: fruit of the poison tree...bad neighborhoods...path of least resistance... one bad apple...squeeky wheel gets the grease...etal)

Brett,

Do you know the definitions of the top 100 google categories? Also, is there an index of the top 1,000 search terms for each category for the last 30 days?

I ask this because we've researched terms through Overture's bidding process, but this is hit or miss. It requires us to assume that a product or service may be of interest in terms of online searches, rather than knowing which terms are most frequently searched.
We want to take our sites to the next level and feel that the best way succeed online is to offer products and services that are most often searched. Agree?

Maybe this might help:

[50.lycos.com...]

Or this:
[google.com...]

Or Yahoo! version:
[buzz.yahoo.com...]

Assaf.

The trouble with these top search lists is that they are mostly names of people.

The reality is that the real popular sectors have 1000's of different phrases and thus don't appear.