For me personally, nothing, apart from "I use it on other devices so I'll use it here too".
Moved from Google to DDG a few years ago, I have no reason really to move to another search as i'm satisfied with duckduckgo, but i'm eyeing Kagi.
DDG has been fast, responsive, works fine when proxied via a datacenter IP (unlike other services that start throwing capchas at you), looks familiar/like Google to the untrained eye, and image search works as you'd expect. If you're coming from google, to be honest there's no reason to pick it specifically, there are a wealth of search engines to choose from.
Approaching it with google-style searches often yields shit results. My search style adjusted over time, and now I find it much better than Google for my use.
As a sidenote, I've found Searx and Yandex are better for niche/unpopular sites (especially those with user-submitted content), as well as 🚢🏴☠️.
I tend to like the "bangs" feature that DuckDuckGo offers when it's set as my browser's default. Basically by putting !+prefix it automatically redirects your search to a different website. !g will do Google, !b will do Bing, !yt will do YouTube, etc.. And it's quite extensive. Currently, DDG claims to have 13,564 bangs you can use, so if there's some website with a search bar, chances are it can be banged from DDG.
The search engine from my use over the last 4-6 years generally provides me with "good enough" search results and I enjoy the interface itself, as well as the sorting options when searching images. Every now and then, if i don't get the results I want, I can just bang a different search engine (I'm just starting to realize the repercussions of using "bang" as a verb...).
I think there are browser extensions that offer pretty much the same functionality but it is something.
I actually found that for me anonymous search result
Just kinda suck. When i type [fastfoodbrand] i want the delivery closest to me, not in California or wherever. When i look for a purchase i want web stores that actually deliver where i live.
As a privacy enthusiast i hate that thats my truth, but the truth it is. But with the downfall of reddit, worsening all Results, most trusted sites being bookmarked and the rise of chatgpt* being just as good if not better then google+reddit.
i do find i am way less incline to search the internet at all.
*Be as critical ofIt as much as your supposed to be online with strangers anyway. Its a tool and only as smart as you are able to prompt
It.
Oh yeah, I reckon there's a good number of extensions for it too, probably something I should check out as well in the future.
And yeah, it's definitely a tradeoff of sorts. Denying a browser or search engine access to all personal information, including GPS, might lead to irrelevant results, so I imagine it's a matter of giving as little information as possible for the maximum relevance in results. GPS is one of those compromises I'll make as well, though only at the zip code level most of the time, since most apps/sites don't need to know my precise location.
While I do try and stick to my trusted sites as much as possible, the things I often want to find online are beyond the scope of the sites I have bookmarked. Though bookmarking more sites that I trust and opting to use them over a regular search seems like a good habit to get into