I didn't like the direction that YouTube was going really - I've ditched all of Google's stuff now. My search system is now DuckDuckGo.
Care to elaborate? I realise you're a bit smarter than, um,
some on this forum.

My own feelings are Google have been getting far too invasive lately for me. You've got to have a Google+ profile now it seems for just uprating a YouTube video. It doesn't help that they wanna share what you're doing with all your contacts and anybody you may have once emailed, including tech support at some obscure android app developer.
It's [censored] annoying. I deleted my G+ profile and had to create another one when I realised I'd lost the ability to comment or even review android apps or anything on YouTube. It's a pita.
Anyway. I use Ghostery and Adblock Plus meself with Firefox. I like Chrome as it's nice and zippy but I'm falling out of love with Google fast.
I'd change my search provider but they all seem to be pretty crud for finding stuff really and I can't be arsed.