I used DDG for about a week.

The results were actually fine, the problem was that the pages tended to take too long to load.

I use DDG & StartPage now I'd say 90% of the time for searching, Google the other 10%. They're both good alternatives. I just want to lessen the amount of information I give to Google. So far so good. Better than I expected, to be honest.

I use ixquick almost exclusively, many times a day (VERY occasionaly bing). Always comes up with what I want. My only complaint is the same as all SEs now: it's difficult to determine where the ads end and the real results begin. :(

I used to use startpage until they began including G results, when I switched to ixquick. Same company but I try to avoid anything G.

I usually click directly on the SERPS site link but if I'm wary of a site I use the proxy link.

I used to use startpage until they began including G results, when I switched to ixquick. Same company but I try to avoid anything G.

I'm against giving G my info, but if they can't track it to me, it doesn't matter.

Agreed, but in this particular case I avoid startpage because a) I suspect results provided by G and b) the fewer searches made of G the sooner they will fall. :)

Good point.

I don't mind the Ixquick SERPs, but DuckDuckGo really made things useful with that top infobox that gives Wikipedia and other selected results. I miss that on the StartPage & Ixquick sites.

I just add wiki (or whatever) to the end of my search. :(

On DDG that would be !w search-term.

Which is non-standard (ok, there isn't a standard for this!) but that means that unless you use the SE regularly you're going to miss it. Far easier to type wiki.

That's the DDG bangs [duckduckgo.com]. There are way too many to remember, but I have a few frequently used ones that I've sacrificed a few brain cells for.

Far easier to type wiki.

That works as well.

Agreed, but in this particular case I avoid startpage because a) I suspect results provided by G and b) the fewer searches made of G the sooner they will fall. :)

Bingo! :) Let's spread the word - I've been using DDG for a couple of years now and love being out of the clutches of the G'sters monopoly - never had a problem finding what I was seeking, nor have I ever had any speed issues. The only thing I don't care for is the images search takes you right to Google images, which has a big google bar at the top that can suck you in if you're not careful.

This mentality out there that all there is for search is G is sad. That needs to change if there's any hope of taming the beast.

I have DDG as my default SE, but about 50% of the time seem to end up adding the !g bang to search on Google. (It's just like the old-times when you had to hop between search engines before you found the site you want - not sure if thats a good or bad thing!)

DDG is the first "alternative" search engine that I've actually continued to use after my trial period of a week or so. Been using it for about six months now and am not looking back. I still use !g (google), !m (maps), !w (wikipedia), !yt (youtube) and such a lot - but actually doing that is faster than clicking around to do those sorts of searches from google.com or what not. Also, it's written in Perl and the founder is a pretty fun and interesting guy so ... hey why not support it :)

I was thinking of switching over to one of these SEs for a bit to see how they fared.
How have you found the SERP quality on these alternative search engines?

If a search engine gives the results desired, then that's the one to use. While I'm not quite a G basher (Bing is my default), I do use many of the other SEs because, JUST MAYBE, they found something the others missed. These are personal searches, not testing for SEO, etc. Sometimes I just want to find something. :)