I've tried to switch to Duck Duck Go unsuccessfully three times since its inception.

This time I have had no problem switching. I'm using Duck for 99% of anything I search for and it's just fine.

The 1% of the time, if I'm really stuck on something I try google shopping or images and its usually no better.

I realized quickly that google search was giving me a very distorted view in its search results, it is making a lot of specific editorial decisions that I wasn't quite aware of, or had lots awareness of over time.

Duck.ai is pretty good too. It's been nice to be able to finally switch, and it'll be interesting to see what happens with duckduckgo now that they can truly see some sustained growth (I can't be alone in this experience).