I am a non-native English language speaker.
I have been using curated as the word to describe something that has been selected from a larger set. Today when I was writing an article, I looked up the word and it doesn't look like it is used a lot.
What alternatives I can use? For example, I'd like to using a word similar to curate in the following sentence:
Please select the best applications from all the ones that we've got.
Additional info from OP in comment:
The sentence is meant to be used on the internet as well as in general speaking. I meant to say select a subset from a larger set, maybe after careful examination. For eg, let's say there is a news app that shows me every news. But I only want to see specific news stories and not everything. So I would want the news app to the news stories before showing to me. Hope this clarifies.
Best Answer
Two dictionaries define the use of curate as a verb as follows:
Personally, I've only previously come across the use of curated in connection with art or historical artifacts (e.g. in a museum), but it's clear that it can be used in connection with lists or collections on the internet.
It's also clear, however, that it's only used in connection with collections of items that have been individually selected — one might have said 'hand-picked' in older terminology — "typically using professional or expert knowledge" (see third definition from Oxford Dictionary, above).
This is confirmed by the definition of curator:
Op's example sentence (in which the use of 'curated' is being considered) is:
I'm not clear exactly what items are intended to be referred to, nor exactly what meaning is intended to be conveyed, but, as it currently reads, that sentence means:
Although I may have misunderstood the intent, that sentence reads to me as if the customer is doing the choosing of what he/she thinks are "the best" items, from the entire collection available. On the other hand, a 'curated collection' should have already pre-selected only the best items, and not be offering "all the ones that we've got".
If the desired meaning does accord with my last sentence above, then I have the following suggestions:
Addendum
OP's additional clarification gives the following example:
First, on my understanding from the definitions and examples above, curation can only be done by a person: not by a machine.
Secondly, there is no specification of the criteria to be used by the app to select the appropriate ones to display; but (from the mention of "specific news stories") I assume the choice is based solely on the subject matter / content of the stories.
That is clearly not curation because it is not "using professional or expert knowledge" or any other careful selection by a person.
Without further information, the choice sounds merely as if it is categorisation or content choice. You could refer to the app "filtering the news stories by content/subject".