Anyone else used this?
http://gigablast.com/

I believe everything else uses google to query (even if it's cloaks or ask on your behalf)

BOTH mainstream alternatives still connect to google AFAIK ( startpage.com or duckduckduckgo.com )

- Gigablast goes one further without using google

So overall educate me please - If I want to search but not use google in the chain at all - what choice is out there?

At some point you're going to have to accept Googles is not the way (in any chain).

Dependency reduced / eliminated = good work
(or at least depending on ourselves than government companies)