I just discovered my new favorite search engine (for the time being): DuckDuckGo (also available at ddg.gg). It was listed as one of the Top 50 Websites of 2011 by TIME Magazine. I had seen the name before but Brian brought it to my attention again today. If privacy concerns you, DuckDuckGo has much better attention to that than Google. In fact, TIME Magazine's citation says:

It's just a simple, straightforward search engine that's reminiscent of early Google, with a no-nonsense privacy policy (it will not store any information that could tie you to your searches) Best of all, the results are dependably relevant and devoid of spam.

There is a plethora of shortcuts you can use to define searches. These are known as "command !bangs" and can be as simple as including an exclamation point before a term. An extensive list is available online and also includes abbreviated ones like !g (google) !i (images) !yt (youtube).

DuckDuckGo doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles (no "Google Docs", no social media, etc.) but it does provide a nifty summary box at the top of each search and as TIME says "dependably relevant" results.