Wait, are you saying Google is the new 'Ask Jeeves'?!? :)
Kidding. Anyway, DDG has been my default for months now. Absolutely love it.
The only thing I've really had to change, is to remember to type in a city/ state when looking for local businesses.
Other than that, it feels so great to not be the product!
Not that your workflow is incorrect, I'm a DDG user and I do the same thing, but that's what Google wants people using their product to do.