I've been on DDG on all my devices for a few years. I used to use !g somewhat regularly but these days it's extremely rare. I realized that I would just search DDG with my first stab at a query and then revise the query when using !g and I'd get the result I wanted. So I just stopped using !g and just revised my query on DDG and then I basically never had to use Google Search.
Unfortunately, DDG's spam filters are basically useless. I used DDG for many years without !g as well and recently, the first page contains mostly AI generated garbage blogs. Not for every search query, but for example for everything related around the house or garden.
Hold on. I had given up on Google almost 10 years ago, and I thought that the AI garbage on DDG was the new norm on the web. At least Google doesn't fare any better. You make it sound like there's another option?
Partly, i find it reassuring to pay for the service with money. That was how we used to do things back in my day.
Localisation is moderate for shopping - i have to sift through US results. I'll occasionally use Google product search when i'm metaphorically groping for my wedding ring in the toilet.
It's not as good as Google used to be, but then, the web isn't a good as the web used to be.
I don't generally find !g gives me better results than DDG and if I instead went to Google I'd get dinged with a Captcha on every search because Google seems to hate my small ISP. So easy choice for me.
