I use http://duckduckgo.com/ for my search engine. It does NOT report your IP adress and it does not create a search bubble around you. I am extremely happy with it. when you go to the site, click on the duck and you will get a good idea of what it is all about.
I also use lavabit.com for my free IMAP and POP3 mail, and am leaving my gmail address behind.
Tom,
thanks for the tip - I’ll give ‘duckduckgo’ a spin.