Switching your search engine is not something to be taken lightly — it's our internet lifeblood.

We rely daily on algorithms we don't understand to surface the exact article we're looking for. And if for some reason it's not at the top of our results — even if the search we entered was a half-baked string of words — we get frustrated.

Luckily, in 2018, Google has put most of those frustrations to rest.

But now that search seems to be in a "steady state," it gives us some time to consider what else is out there. These past two weeks, I did something that 15, maybe even 10 years ago, may have been inconceivable: I gave other search engines a go.

First, I tried the privacy-focused, ad-blocking DuckDuckGo. The next week I moved to Microsoft's Bing, something I never thought I'd hear myself say.

The move off of Google wasn't as bad as I imagined when first taking on the task. It amazed me that other companies are now competitive with Google when it comes to search.

As for the differences and the overall search engine champion, here's what I found: