I had totally forgotten about "verbatim tool". Thanks.

Further, I see there's now an option to disable "relevant" (personalized) searches.

https://www.google.com/preferences

"Private results

Private results help find more relevant content for you, including content and connections that only you can see."

Followed by checkbox.

The linked explainer suggests the "relevant" (personalized) search is informed by your activity with other Google products. Skeptical me thinks that's hardly the whole story.

"Search results from your Google products" https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1710607

Either way, I may try google search for a while, see if there's any benefit over DDG.