Whilst they are good compared with other engines they are dictating who and what sites you actually get to see. So you aren't really surfing the WWW, just Googles version of it. I now use Dogpile, which is a type of broker of search engines, but occassionally have to use Google as well. Its going the same way as Microsoft, getting too big to be useful to everyone, just the masses who don't care too much, but just want results whatever. Do a search for "google under investigation" you'll be surprised.
Google Search is faster brings up more reliable searches. Google does not have a lot of dead links. I have been using Google search for years and I am completely satisfied with it.