FWIW my default browser is Brave, and Brave's default search engine is Brave Search. I almost switched back to Safari because the Brave Search results were so much worse than Google. Eventually found that you can set the default search engine in Brave - there's Brave, Google, DDG, Qwant, Bing, StartPage, and Ecosia available.

I'd highly recommend this exercise for everyone who complains that there's no competition for Google, because a.) you're actually trying the competition and b.) you might realize how much Google does for you, and how far ahead they are against the competition. Who knows, you might even find a better search engine, and then next time you can come make recommendations for other HNers.