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I started feeling like I had all my eggs in the same basket. Google has my email, it knows where I want to go and when (Google Maps), it translates stuff for me
by Lifesnoozer 9y ago
I started feeling like I had all my eggs in the same basket. Google has my email, it knows where I want to go and when (Google Maps), it translates stuff for me, and it knows what I search for. While it doesn't really affect me that Google has all this information, I've become more and more uncomfortable with the fact that they do.
So I figured if I had a choice of two search engines, where I get satisfying results in both of them, and one of them doesn't track me, why go for the one that tracks me?
I'd gladly do the same switch when it comes to Gmail, but I really really like Gmail's web interface, haven't gotten over that hurdle yet.
EDIT: I also switched from Google Chrome for pretty much the same reasons.
- Vinnl 9y agoSame here, trying to avoid it as much as possible Google now mainly has my email and calendar. I feel like there should be a better option for calendar but I haven't been able to find it yet (probably because I use DDG :P), but sadly, the only thing with a better interface than Gmail is Google Inbox, so...
- chrisper 9y agoThe problem is that Google often provides the best service for the buck. But even if money is taken out of the equation some Google services are just the best. Like Google maps or even G suite (this might vary by person). Hard to avoid them in that case.
- louhike 9y agoYou went from Chrome to Firefox?
- Lifesnoozer 9y agoSafari at the moment but thinking about going to Firefox
- logan5 9y agoI switched from Chrome to Brave a few months ago. https://www.brave.com/ https://www.brave.com/
- dreen 9y agoBeen using Brave on mobile and it's great, but the UI layout on desktop is awkward so I don't use it there.
- MistahKoala 9y agoI attempted it but extension support is not especially user-friendly.
- michaelbrooks 9y agoI would recommend Vivaldi as it supports Chrome extensions. Chrome apps can be installed, but not used (hopefully Vivaldi fixes that). I really like the idea of Brave, but not having extension support is a major hurdle which I hope they get over.
- MistahKoala 9y agoI'm currently using Vivaldi, but have to say that it's not really an ideal analogue of Chrome as it doesn't carry over some of the everyday features and affordances of Chrome. That's partly understandable, because it's actually (apparently) intended to be a browser for Opera users to migrate to. It's also a bit buggy. I'm surprised there isn't a straightforward and user-friendly Google-less Chromium browser available.
- michaelbrooks 9y agoI 100% agree with your statement, but I feel that Vivaldi is currently the best browser that's close to Chrome in terms of feature parity. Hopefully though, with more support, they will become an efficient browser that's unique enough to be separate from Chrome but have the features we know and love.
- cormacrelf 9y agoFirefox 57/Nightly! Do it.
- geekme 9y agoI moved from firefox to opera
- StavrosK 9y agoI made the jump to Fastmail.com and couldn't be happier. The UI is very snappy (much faster than Gmail's), the actual notifications and delivery is faster, and it's a better experience overall, for me. Plus, Google doesn't get to see my mail any more. Ditto for Firefox vs Chrome.
- tallanvor 9y agoI'm a fan of moving away from Google where possible as well, but Fastmail would cost me $500/year with 10 accounts. My G Suite account is one of the original, so I can have up to 200 accounts for free. Granted, it's only 15GB of storage, but even after about 10 years, I only have about 1GB in my inbox, so I'm ok with the lower amount of space.
- Flimm 9y agoFastmail give you free aliases.
- tallanvor 9y agoThe problem with aliases is still that they route to one account, and if it's compromised, there's no separation.
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoFastMail aliases are great. I've used some for sites I'm more likely to want to cut off access to me, for instance. Whereas address+site@gmail.com gives you sortability, a true alias gives you the easy ability to just shut a site out of access to you. Another issue I had was that my main email address was already in Google and Microsoft's systems for a couple reasons, and it wouldn't let me set it properly when changing my email address everywhere. So I have google@ and microsoft@ aliases just to work around their account management quirks.
- StavrosK 9y agoWow, what do you do with 10 accounts? Isn't checking all of them a hassle? I have multiple domains and aliases, and Fastmail is much better at those than Google Apps ever was (I also have the free plan but you can never change your initial domain), so I'm much happier.
- Chris2048 9y agoAny centralized efforts for this kind of thing? I'd like the same..