Also use Camino and Firefox occasionally.

can't stand safari btw

Light and fast, even if lacking in some features

I have used Firefox forever and before that whatever earlier product Mozilla had out.

I use Safari, but it isn't my default browser. I use it as a change of pace.

Chrome seems . . . . . . I don't know . . . . . gimmicky.

I tried Camino on a pure whim. It just seems very light and fast.

I also have Opera, but that's just plain weird to me.

Safari is a web browser, the software you use to access the WWW. A search engine is a web service that...well, searches.

Safari's default search engine is Google, which pretty much the whole world (the Firefox family, Opera, Chrome, I think even IE!) uses because of their generally superior, refined, and innovative (despite the loud protestations of certain people here) search methodologies (More info than you ever wanted).

So for an answer - the only search engine I use is Google. In all three browsers that I use, mostly Chrome, Safari and Camino sometimes.

DuckDuckGo. Their major emphasis is privacy...no tracking, no filtering, no logging, no "personalization", nothing more than anonymous, private searching.

Their privacy policy is the best, and the search results I get with DuckDuckGo are excellent. There's a mobile version, too.

I use Safari (blech) and occasionally Firefox so far.

It also has a lot of useful extensions.
Firefox does too but Chrome seems to run faster on a lot of pages.

all your help and suggestions. I do a little research and then choose!

They are both excellent web browsers. I have both, and use them both. Sometimes I just feel like using Firefox, and sometimes I feel like using Chrome.
Firefox is the real true open source browser. Google owns Chrome.

google, duck-duck-go, alta-vista, bing.

These are search engines. Safari is a web browser. I use Mozilla.

I use Chrome.

Search engine - Google.

I use both Firefox and Chrome more than I use Safari. I like them better. However, sometimes Firefox starts gobbling up my Mac resources if it's been running for a couple of days or more.