I stopped using Google when they mandated the AI shit onto the results. At that time I was using DuckDuckGo as a secondary engine, when Google wasn't able to find what I was looking for after 5 or so pages. They usually had it. But now it's the other way around.
would say that the best way is use multiple search engine instead of just dedicated to one, although i just lazy and straight up google, using of multiple search engine is rare for me. google, duckduckgo, yandex, bing