Pseudo-monopolies are great at extinguishing imagination like that, and tbh Google search (as I understand its basic setup) was only as good as it was thanks to timing and few really good competitors.
Interesting. There was a time when I noticed that DDG didn't scan as often and so wouldn't have the very latest news, but now they are functionally identical to me. If I don't find something on one, I'm pretty surprised how I don't find it in more or less the same way on the others