Different search engines perform different functions. Try a new one!
The Ask/AJ/Ask Jeeves search engine has an uncluttered interface. The results are presented in groups and can be easier to read than Google.
DuckDuckGo has features like 'zero-click' information (all your answers are found on the first results page). It also has a function that helps to clarify what question you are really asking (disambiguation prompts). It has less ad spam than Google.
"Yippy is a Deep Web engine that searches other search engines for you. Unlike the regular Web, which is indexed by robot spider programs, Deep Web pages are usually harder to locate by conventional search. That's where Yippy becomes very useful. If you are searching for obscure hobby interest blogs, obscure government information, tough-to-find obscure news, academic research and otherwise-obscure content, then Yippy is your tool."
The Internet Archive has been taking snapshots of the entire World Wide Web for years now, allowing us to see what a web page looked like in 1999, or what the news was like around Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Use this site when you need to travel back in time.
On an iPad?
Zenhat is an iPad app for school research which has thousands of specially selected websites that have been organised into topics. St Pat's provides it for you to use - you don't need to buy it!
Bing is Microsoft's response to Google. It offers suggestions, while also giving you different search options at the top of the screen. Things like 'wiki' suggestions, 'visual search', and 'related searches' might be very useful to you.
Dogpile - Contary to its name, Dogpile's results are presented in a clear and clean manner with helpful crosslink results.
Mahalo is the one 'human-powered' search site on this page. It has a committee of editors to manually sift and vet thousands of pieces of content. You get fewer hit results than Bing or Google but most Mahalo results have a higher quality of content and relevance (as best as human editors can judge). "Mahalo also offers regular web searching in addition to asking questions. Depending on which of the two search boxes you use at Mahalo, you will either get direct content topic hits or suggested answers to your question."
Wolfram/Alpha - Ask it a question. It'll do its best to interpret your input and generate results for you.