For this very purpose (trusting Google in certain searches) my default search engine is Google's Feeling Lucky. If I want regular Google search I use 'g' keyword (I got used to it as it was default in Opera since I can remember). Also, when you mistype or your search is just bad (Did you mean?) the Feeling Lucky won't redirect you.
I guess you guys must be using much simpler searches than me, because Google rarely has what I'm searching for as the top link unless the search is super simple (like a search for "wikipedia" or something).
Google also screws up constantly when it tries to search for what it thinks you meant rather than for what you actually typed. I hate that feature.
And, of course, there's the spyware keystroke monitoring when you type in google's own search form.
All these reasons and more is why I long ago switched to DDG as my primary search engine.
I tried using Scroogle for a while, which at least tries to solve some of the privacy issues with Google. But the search results were just not as high quality as those of DDG.
