Use better engines like Kagi is the answer. Startpage.com is an OK free option. You could also try Ecosia, Qwant, or DuckDuckGo.

Google is absolute dogshit now because they went all in on AI with no regard for what the user experience is actually like (same shit they pulled when they killed Assistant to try and force people to use Gemini, which is horrible as an assistant - can’t even reliably set a fucking timer and it still requires gigs of space on your phone and an active internet connection just to tell you to use the timer app, WTF?). Their search was well past its heyday, but things really took a nosedive with Gemini. Their goal is to make money now rather than correctly indexing data and helping people find things, they are not the company they originally were and haven’t been for a long time.