I’ve been using DuckDuck Go since leaving Google Search, but that seems to be the first step away. I’m not keen on their AI assist. I tried Start Page, but the first four results were ads. I don’t mind paying a small fee for good search. So Brave Search or Kagi?
Try Mojeek. I don’t like, at all, that it’s based in the UK, but at least it’s not Gringoland. Easy-to-use, own web index, truly independent company with own ad syndication (no Bing).