Interesting, I remember a lot of people switching from Google and even seeing billboard ads for DDG. Even Ecosia, the site I use myself, is just returning Bing results (which are somewhat less ideologically curated compared to Google results). I don't like Bing either (Microsoft are a criminal enterprise). Has anyone used another search engine to recommend for privacy and good social values?
I think this is a documented shift in the psychology of a lot of young people who grew up with the internet. People use their brainpower to remember where and how to find things rather than remembering things directly. It's not necessarily a bad thing, since it's more efficient overall I think.
Of course, it is kind of a bad thing when a lot of human knowledge starts to depend on the existence of a dozen major websites