I love DDG and the !bang syntax. Just a tip if you want to avoid Google completely - use !sp instead of !g. You will get a Google result without any of your data going to Google. Also, you can use !bangs at the end of a search query too, not just the beginning.
The shorter "!s" is equivalent to "!sp". Also, "!spi" gives you a StartPage image search.
I'm an I.T. in a high school where 200 PCs have only duckduckgo as a search engine. At first, not everyone was happy, but now, nobody gives a fuck. A little victory for privacy.
Welcome to the fold. I've been primarily using ddg for several years now, and am very happy with it.