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FWIW, I'm living a Google-free live now, and it works very well: - DuckDuckGo as default search engine - Own domain for email, forwarded to Apple's mail - Ap

by FabHK 7y ago

FWIW, I'm living a Google-free live now, and it works very well: - DuckDuckGo as default search engine - Own domain for email, forwarded to Apple's mail - Apple map, Yandex map, Waze, Here WeGo for maps (depending on the country) - For videos, I search them in DDG with "<searchterm> !yt", then copy the links I want and download them with `youtube-dl` - Firefox and Safari - Zoho as a replacement for online docs and spreadsheets etc. EDIT to add: I should say that I try to live Google-free...

criddell 7y ago
You've certainly reduced your Google footprint. I don't think it's possible to reduce it to zero though.
g5pw 7y ago
Just a heads-up: Waze is owned by Google [1] now. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waze#Google_subsidiary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waze#Google_subsidiary
- CaptainZapp 7y ago
  Waze was recommended by family for a trip to Israel. The good news: Available for Windows Phone (which I had at that time) The bad news: In order to use it access to my address book. For a navigation app? WHAT THE FUCK!
  - thecatspaw 7y ago
    probably to suggest destinations
    - callalex 7y ago
      That would be true if it was optional, not required.
  - samfriedman 7y ago
    Peeves me that in order to control Spotify from Waze I have to agree to share my Waze location data w/ Spotify... I really wish we had regulations that limited companies from blocking functionality behind data-walls.
justusthane 7y ago
What do you do about websites that use reCaptcha?
- FabHK 7y ago
  good point... browse in private mode by default, and with a VPN (which by the way means that I solve a lot of captchas :-/ )
auiya 7y ago
You're likely not at all living "Google free". https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-google-out-of-my-life-it-screwed-up-everything-1830565500 https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-google-out-of-my-life-it-screwed-u...
- FabHK 7y ago
  Informative, thanks. Hmmmm, Uber, Lyft, and Dropbox - I avoid those, too.
- perfect_wave 7y ago
  This was a great article. I found the one on the author attempting to cut Amazon out of her life even more interesting: https://gizmodo.com/i-tried-to-block-amazon-from-my-life-it-was-impossible-1830565336 https://gizmodo.com/i-tried-to-block-amazon-from-my-life-it-... It's next to impossible. Maybe one day our antitrust laws (and the rest of our laws I suppose) will catch up to the world we're living in.

by FabHK 7y ago

criddell 7y ago

You've certainly reduced your Google footprint. I don't think it's possible to reduce it to zero though.

g5pw 7y ago

Just a heads-up: Waze is owned by Google [1] now. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waze#Google_subsidiary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waze#Google_subsidiary

CaptainZapp 7y ago
Waze was recommended by family for a trip to Israel. The good news: Available for Windows Phone (which I had at that time) The bad news: In order to use it access to my address book. For a navigation app? WHAT THE FUCK!
- thecatspaw 7y ago
  probably to suggest destinations
  - callalex 7y ago
    That would be true if it was optional, not required.
- samfriedman 7y ago
  Peeves me that in order to control Spotify from Waze I have to agree to share my Waze location data w/ Spotify... I really wish we had regulations that limited companies from blocking functionality behind data-walls.

justusthane 7y ago

What do you do about websites that use reCaptcha?

FabHK 7y ago
good point... browse in private mode by default, and with a VPN (which by the way means that I solve a lot of captchas :-/ )

auiya 7y ago

You're likely not at all living "Google free". https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-google-out-of-my-life-it-screwed-up-everything-1830565500 https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-google-out-of-my-life-it-screwed-u...

FabHK 7y ago
Informative, thanks. Hmmmm, Uber, Lyft, and Dropbox - I avoid those, too.
perfect_wave 7y ago
This was a great article. I found the one on the author attempting to cut Amazon out of her life even more interesting: https://gizmodo.com/i-tried-to-block-amazon-from-my-life-it-was-impossible-1830565336 https://gizmodo.com/i-tried-to-block-amazon-from-my-life-it-... It's next to impossible. Maybe one day our antitrust laws (and the rest of our laws I suppose) will catch up to the world we're living in.