I'd like to experiment with using both browsers for all my searching for a bit. Has anyone cut over entirely from Google (or others) and remained happy?

I used brave for quite some time and there have been no real downsides, only major difference I really noticed was less google products being sent at me. For example, if I searched for “Translate” I wouldn’t just immediately get google translate.

I did, it's quite good, love the !Bangs.

I LOVE DDG (regardless of it's shortcomings) Any Search Engine but Google!

I think it was and still is one of the best choices for quick and simple access to privacy. Yes there are certainly better solutions, but for those not so tech-savvy it’s always been an extremely good choice.

Have you tried Qwant.com? I've been happy with their results, but DuckDuckGo and most Google alternatives lean heavily on Microsoft's database and search engine from Bing, hence both performing much better at long tail LinkedIn searches than Google.