Indeed. I wasn't clever enough to avoid creating a Google account in the first place (although I'm pretty sure it was just a “Gmail” account back then). I swit

Indeed. I wasn't clever enough to avoid creating a Google account in the first place (although I'm pretty sure it was just a “Gmail” account back then). I switched away from Gmail and Google Calendar a couple of weeks ago. I also disconnected my Google account from my phone. I haven't regularly used their web search in years. I've used an email address at my own domain for years, precisely so I wasn't tied to Gmail, and therefore I haven't needed to spam my contacts or change a load of user accounts to a new email address. It's almost a shame Google+ never took off, because then the non-tech media might be talking about Google in the same way as Facebook.