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Degoogle: Cutting Google out of your life

• shivenigma 6y ago
  I am not really married to google but I am not sure if it really pays the effort of moving my google account to a different provider. I know that my data is used to make me an advertising target, I am going to get advertising anyway because we haven't found a better business models yet. I don't use google search and chrome. But not sure if I will be able to switch to another email provider and will be able to spend the time and energy required to update my email everywhere.
• helij 6y ago
  I use Zoho mainly for email but some other services as well. I like it very much but it cannot rival G suite or Office365 yet. Website states that it can though so their experience might be different. Text editor and spreadsheet app are way slower than both Google and Microsoft solutions.
• EduardoBautista 6y ago
  Does a service being part of the “5-eyes” really mean anything? I mean, this list makes it sound like being in China is a better alternative than being in Canada.
  • mikece 6y ago
    Depends on the service and whether you are trying to hide from somebody who can issue a warrant or you are just trying to hide from corporations who sell your data. Also depends upon the level of encryption. For example, spider oak can hand over encrypted blocks of data if served a warrant but can’t tell even what your file names are in those encrypted blobs. What specifically do you have in mind?
  • vmception 6y ago
    No, it doesn’t. There was a time period where people were trying to use/put services in Iceland or Switzerland because they weren’t part of a known default sharing arrangement and people completely relied on poor interpretations of laws acting like the government took a completely hands off approach to data. The reality is that absent a treaty, these places can all choose respond to foreign warrants and often times do. China and Russia being notably separate from the rest of the world, and also large areas.
    • SahAssar 6y ago
      > The reality is that absent a treaty, these places can all choose respond to foreign warrants and often times do. The question shouldn't be if they "can" the question should be if they "can be forced to and be legally required not to disclose it". There is a reason American companies have tried to hack around the law with warrant canaries.
      • vmception 6y ago
        In your mind, how was the last paragraph relevant to the other country thing? But the answer is yes they can be forced, absolutely. All countries have more to lose with the US (not that there is an ideological line in the sand, countries willingly cooperate with FBI, which is instructed by Congress to handle foreign investigations as well) and this is exactly what has played out in case after case after case.
  • guerrilla 6y ago
    It depends entirely on your thread model. If you're trying to avoid persecution by one of the 5-eyes and not any of the others, then yes, obviously it matters. For example, for dissidents, leakers, activists, etc. Having someone else spy on you who doesn't care about you and what you're doing isn't as big of a deal in such cases.
• awestroke 6y ago
  The list of alternatives just makes me lose hope of cutting out Google. They are lightyears ahead of the alternatives in so many categories.
  • autisticcurio 6y ago
    It isnt just Google you need to cut out of your life, all the global corps are complicit in building the surveillance state. Copyright laws means you cant check your chips on your devices have not become persistent backdoors into your system. You simply can not check the code. Goal posts will always be moved as you are Resource Burned fighting the system. Welcome to the Matrix Mr Anderson.
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  • searchableguy 6y ago
    Which?
    • judge2020 6y ago
      [not op] Given that Microsoft/Apple/etc. aren't mentioned, G Suite has no real alternative other than Zoho (Note: nextcloud doesn't do email, so it's arguably not a GSuite competitor). This list would be better titled 'free/open-source alternatives to Google products' since excluding the other big companies extends past "de-google" and more into "open source living", if that's a good term for it.
      • deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      • RonanTheGrey 6y ago
        Microsoft is absolutely a GSuite competitor and has arguably been in the space longer. I moved most of my custom domain emails off Google some months back and onto Microsoft 365 and it's honestly a great experience.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
• zelly 6y ago
  The author of this should start with the root name server for his domain
  • simplehuman 6y ago
    Rome wasn't built in a day. Take small steps at a time, nothing wrong with it.
    • hu3 6y ago
      That is a really small step to have missed.
• _emacsomancer_ 6y ago
  Organising contributions about de-googling on a Microsoft platform seems rather like out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire to me.
• kej 6y ago
  I like the irony of hosting this site on a Google-operated TLD.
  • techsupporter 6y ago
    Especially one that Google weren't even going to let the rest of us use (an entire "generic" top-level domain to use as a globally-routable in-house domain...) and only capitulated after it seemed like the pressure on ICANN might cause them to Do Something About That.
    • judge2020 6y ago
      Have context? Algolia search isn't working well for me, or I don't know which keywords would lead me to the story.
      • techsupporter 6y ago
        Here's a story from The Reg in 2015: https://www.theregister.com/2015/03/13/google_developer_gtld_domain_icann/ https://www.theregister.com/2015/03/13/google_developer_gtld... They quote from Google's application for .dev in 2013: "The proposed gTLD will provide Google with direct association to the term 'dev', which is an abbreviation of the word 'development'. The mission of this gTLD, .dev, is to provide a dedicated domain space in which Google can enact second-level domains specific to its projects in development." Google finally opened it to registration in 2019, four years later: https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/21/google_launches_dev/ https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/21/google_launches_dev/ (Google also added .dev to the HSTS preload list so browsers expect names in that domain to only be reachable via HTTPS, thus breaking in-house uses of .dev.)
        • SahAssar 6y ago
          > (Google also added .dev to the HSTS preload list so browsers expect names in that domain to only be reachable via HTTPS, thus breaking in-house uses of .dev.) Anyone using .dev for that was already broken per the spec. There are TLDs for those cases, they are .test, .local and .invalid.
• mikece 6y ago
  The hardest service to part with is Google Analytics. Sure, there are some awesome and open source alternatives but you’re either paying a lot for them or you have to set up/maintain servers/VMs/VPS for the app, the databases, backups, etc.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• fossuser 6y ago
  I dropped all google services and it wasn’t that hard. The most tedious part is moving accounts from your gmail to your new email (I switched to using my own domain backed by fastmail). Even with a password manager and a list of all my accounts this took me an entire day. You also learn how terrible most non-software company account management is. On a lot of sites changing email is impossible. On some it lets you do it, but doesn’t actually delete the old one on the backend so you get emails to both (and it becomes impossible to turn off notifications on the old one). One site couldn’t handle custom email domains, one site told me to create a new account and ignore the old one. One site changed my email, but still makes me login with my old email as the user, etc. I ended up using an alias for the less trustworthy sites and filing as many CCPA requests as I could to the companies to delete accounts (naturally the sites bad about accounts are bad about this too). The only google service that is really relevant and hard to replace is YouTube. I plan to delete my old google account and have a fresh one with everything turned off that I only use for YouTube. Other than that though, it’s been a lot simpler than I thought it would be. Google is starting to feel like Yahoo to me, a company without clear vision or purpose. They better hope their ad revenue doesn’t decay.
  • jacobwilliamroy 6y ago
    Google's purpose is to help the NSA circumvent congress. Google is here to stay until further notice.
    • Efuveo 6y ago
      This thread is filled with juicy dumb comments, but you certainly win.
      • jacobwilliamroy 6y ago
        Seriously? Have you not read any of the snowden leaks?
        • fossuser 6y ago
• zackmorris 6y ago
  Looking at this list, I would propose that it's easier to regulate and tax Google than it is to free ourselves of it via the private sector.
  • dan1234 6y ago
    That’s a possible solution if you’re in the US, and trust the regulators, but what of the rest of the world?
• amelius 6y ago
  I wonder why more big corporations don't ban Google. Through search alone, Google knows exactly what other big corporations are up to (perhaps even better than the corporations know themselves). That is something that should scare companies. I know GMail has been banned for this reason in a lot of places, but search is just as important.
• SllX 6y ago
  There are plenty of YouTube alternatives if you’re looking to just host a video somewhere; but if you’re looking to grow an audience or have eclectic tastes, then there is not a reasonable alternative to YouTube yet. You can have every single other video service’s app on your iPad or Apple TV or bookmarked in your browsers and all of them combined will not match the selection and breadth and discoverability of YouTube. They’ve had some controversies and even personally annoyed me a few times, but YouTube is still one of the web’s jewels.
• w0mbat 6y ago
  I am old so I have worked for various big and small tech companies, including most of the ones being discussed here. Google is the one I would trust with my data. They know how to do hosting at scale (unlike some really quite large and famous companies who suck at that), although not perfect, they have a humanist moral compass in their culture, and I don't expect them to go out of business. I would not make myself reliant on a niche Google product (like Google Reader) as those tend to vanish, but a mainstream Google service like GMail or YouTube is a great reliable thing. If you think other companies are more moral than Google, you are fooling yourself.
• lazyeye 6y ago
  Note: For password manager root accounts its better security to use a gmail address with 2FA as nobody is going to be able to hijack the gmail domain.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• blendergeek 6y ago
  If a company is based in an "X eyes" nation", but the product is A) self-hosted and B) open source, does it matter that the organization the develops it is based in an "X eyes" nation?
  • gramakri 6y ago
    I don't think it matters if the product is selfhosted and opensource. That said, in my circles, people are wary about deploying software from specific countries even if they are selfhosted and opensource. I think part of the issue is that docker is the preferred more of deployment these days and sometimes it's not clear what does into the docker image (i.e when you don't build your own images, which you always should)
  • petronio 6y ago
    The risk is much lesser, but there's the possibility of poisoning the binaries or release package. There's also the whole "just because open source allows people to review code doesn't mean that they do" problem, but I don't expect that attack vector to be used by state actors because it would make the beneficiary of the attack too obvious to the public.
• AtomicPlayboy 6y ago
  It's becoming increasingly difficult to avoid Google with the upcoming Fuchsia OS designed to work everywhere and replace Android and also Google's upcoming SoC.
  • junon 6y ago
    I will never, ever install Fuchsia if I can help it. Replacing one Google Spyware OS with another doesn't solve anything.
    • hu3 6y ago
      I will keep using Google products for as long as they keep being great. Life's too short for extreme measures. You gotta pick your fights. What I did stop using was anything Apple related and that fight was easy to pick. Their repair-hostile-by-design hardware actually harm the environment. Plus it proved trivial to replace their crap with superior tech.
      • AtomicPlayboy 6y ago
        Whether their products are good or not is beside the point. They do everything they can to have your PII and this is something people should care about. Things like 'accidentally' collecting your BSSIDs for Google Maps or providing Google Fonts not because they want a more beautiful Web, but to have a tracker on your site.
        • hu3 6y ago
          None of that affects me negatively, they can have all my info for all I care. Plus they make our lives easier on a level that was unthinkable not long ago with Best in Slot free products like youtube, maps, search, email, open source browser and accessible smartphones with open source OS. My only complain to Alphabet is that they like to toy with us by keeping Mozilla alive on a feeding tube. That's just cruel, I expected some mercy.
      • Scapeghost 6y ago
• jakobmartz3 6y ago
  I agree with doing this and have started too, theres many alts to google and google drive
• flurdy 6y ago
  I also blogged a fortnight ago about the same degoogling process. https://blog.flurdy.com/2020/08/degoogling.html https://blog.flurdy.com/2020/08/degoogling.html My problem as I mention is that I am at the same time regoogling...
  • dorchadas 6y ago
    Yep. I'd love to degoogle my personal stuff, but my work stuff has to be Google (I'm a teacher, and all our stuff is run through Google). Plus, my university alumni account is through Google, which would be annoying to change as that's how I've gotten in touch with a lot of useful contacts I've made.
• newsat13 6y ago
  For those into self-hosting, there's some really up and coming options these days - Cloudron, Yunohost, homelabos. Sandstorm also seems some activity again these days (come on guys!). Honestly, it really is not that hard to degoogle these days especially if you are a techie.
• tomerbd 6y ago
  Would you prefer a world without or with google? do you use an android device?
• aj_nikhil 6y ago
  I have been using Duck duck go for few months now. Never missed Google. Slowly I will shift other services as well. It's a matter of societal good that we degoogle. Else Google will become strongest company ever created by mankind.
  • Taek 6y ago
    Google has gotten a lot worse over the past 2 years. The SEO spam has outpaced Google's ability to find actually relevant results.
    • Natsu 6y ago
      It's not just spam, using Google puts you into a bubble. Now, the search team will tell you they're doing it to curate the results to present high-quality information, but it's still a bubble in the end. It's very harmful if you're trying to understand what other people are thinking and seeing without filters.
  • e40 6y ago
    I've been using DDG for more than a year. Just switched back a day or two ago. I just got sick of the terrible results. I don't know if Google got better or DDG/Bing got worse. A few months ago I started comparing search results and the Google ones where better and the other day I just couldn't handle doing double searches anymore. Really sad to me that it came to this.
    • exlurker 6y ago
      You can !g google in DDG when you need to. I often have to do, and hopefully DDG picks this up and improves their search.
• 29athrowaway 6y ago
  You may not have gmail, but if most of your recipients are on gmail they got all your mail anyways.
• VLM 6y ago
  You can put the effort in on your schedule to degoogle, or wait for them to discontinue services where you have to degoogle on their priorities plans and schedule. You'll note the list doesn't have solutions to replace Google Reader, or Google Music, or G+. Someday I'm sure I'll have to replace Google Domains and Calendar and YouTube. Maybe I should do that on my schedule instead of waiting for google to decide for me.
  • ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    That's how I got rid of my Google+ posting history for sure.
• nickelpro 6y ago
  Genuinely, why should I care? What harm is likely to happen to my life by sticking with Google, a service provider I find convenient? EDIT: I don't want to be accused of fan-boying or astro-turfing. I just see "Avoid Big Company X because they collect your data" a lot and I just can't give a damn about companies collecting my data. Be my guest, if it means I get free stuff. My data is boring tech nerd data, use it to deliver relevant vacuum cleaner ads, I don't care. I block them anyway.
  • XCSme 6y ago
    I think the biggest problem is Google becoming a monopoly, when you rely daily on tens of their services. Than, if for some reason, they decide to close your account or use your data to "be evil", there's not much you can do.
    • nickelpro 6y ago
      Is there a history of Google de-activating accounts arbitrarily? I agree this would be a huge problem, but I'd be similarly devastated if my ISP stopped doing business with me, or any other email provider if I wasn't on gmail. True, if Google deactivated my account I'd lose a little bit more than just gmail, but any company I do business with arbitrarily cutting me off would be on the same magnitude of problematic. That seems like a risk you take just by doing business with third-parties at all.
      • eyeball 6y ago
        I would be screwed if google deactivated my mail account. So many accounts linked.
        • cube00 6y ago
          There's never been a better time to get your own domain and take back control before it happens.
          • 6y ago
• maletor 6y ago
  This is funny having come from a Google TLD.
• marianov 6y ago
  Android google maps is what keeps me going back to Google. No other service has all local shops, phone numbers, schedules, etc.
• aitchnyu 6y ago
  I never considered a Gmail alternative since Gmail has primary/social/promotion/updates tabs and proper threading of replies and almost perfect spam protection. What services do the above things as good?
  • curiousmindz 6y ago
    Yahoo! Mail has one really cool feature: It supports actual browser-like tabs. So, it is possible to open multiple email conversations in parallel, as well as run some searches, and look at various folders.
  • paranorman 6y ago
    They haven’t gotten much love on this site but I recently switched to hey.com after being a gmail user since beta in 2004 and couldn’t be happier. I like the “feed” for newsletter-y things (with a neat scroll to preview messages view) and the paper trail for transactions. There’s also something empowering about the simple “thumbs up” “thumbs down” screening queue for new senders. I will say, however, that I never realized just how infrequently I receive mail that actually warrants my attention (let alone a reply) and that feels sort of lonely in a funny way.
  • sosborn 6y ago
    I’m with you on the SPAM protection, but I find the tabs and threading to be god awful.
    • wintermutestwin 6y ago
      Love the tabs, but the threading is such a PITA thanks to their convoluted interface. Every time I want to selectively reply and change the subject line, I have do do a minor research project to figure it out.
    • ehsankia 6y ago
      Tabs work flawlessly for me. It takes a little bit of time to get used to what goes where, and you can only use a subset of them, but in general, I love promotional emails being separate, so i can unsubscribe from them all in one place, that's my favorite.
• didip 6y ago
  This list looks closer to r/selfhosted and that is not what most people want. To de-google quickly, you can just pay a different vendor like iCloud or FastMail or whatever Microsoft offering is.
• HIP_HOP 6y ago
  Interesting article. Thanks for sharing it.
• maps7 6y ago
  I switched to HEY earlier this year for email and so far so good! Google maps is probably the product I am most dependent on.
  • simplehuman 6y ago
    It's risky.. hey does not have custom domains
    • twicetwice 6y ago
      Yet—as soon as they do, I'll probably jump to them. I'm using Zoho right now. That's the nice thing about having your email address at your own domain—I can move freely from provider to provider while using the same address!
      • simplehuman 6y ago
        Totally agreed
• rootsudo 6y ago
  I enjoy while reading that page on extensions to use, it's a list of what can be normally accomplished by browser settings. Are you expected to run 25 extensions? Many which do similar things and can be done by forcing the browser to delete cookies upon quit/exit/restart? If the idea is a buffet, then what's the point? You're going to have a gap and DNS is going to be your weakpoint.
  • nuker 6y ago
    > Are you expected to run 25 extensions? Yeah, that makes the article unusable. They should've split the list to 'must have' and 'others'.
• wintorez 6y ago
  I tried. I failed. I returned. Google is like Gravity. It would be awesome to escape it, but it’s expensive, impractical, and sooner or later, you will be back where you where. :(
  • prox 6y ago
    Where have you failed? What services are like drugs to you? ;)
    • wintorez 6y ago
      Search, Maps, Drive, YouTube
  • nuker 6y ago
    > Google is like Gravity. Great comment :) What beats one body gravity is bigger body's gravity. I escaped to Apple few years ago, except search. Safari should have custom search engine setting, though. Is it missing because of the deal with Google for default engine?
    • wintorez 6y ago
      My solution is to put my eggs in different baskets as much as possible. Using Chrome on iPhone, backups on Dropbox, etc. Although to be fair, not a lot of baskets has remained these days.
      • nuker 6y ago
        You think that all baskets are equally bad, hence the approach to separate data. I say follow the money. Apple gets its money from consumers buying devices, Google from businesses buying ads, MS from businesses, buying MS because, well... Now, who has the best incentive to protect consumer's data?
    • bostonvaulter2 6y ago
      It does have a custom search setting, it's in the settings app.
• tzfld 6y ago
  All these self-hosted platforms would definitely not help an average person in de-googling himself. And these are like 99% of the users.
  • simplehuman 6y ago
    So there is no room in this world for niche products?
• CameronNemo 6y ago
  I am currently running a degoogled Android phone. Hardest part has been mapping -- OsmAnd lacks many points of interest as well as Los Angeles street numbers. I am not looking forward to having to go by cross streets and looking up points of interest in a separate app (Acastus Photon).
  • commoner 6y ago
    Magic Earth (closed source freeware) uses maps from OpenStreetMap, but also has data for street numbers in certain regions including the US. https://www.magicearth.com https://www.magicearth.com It's a convenient middle ground between Google Maps and OsmAnd until the FOSS apps improve.
  • carlinmack 6y ago
    if you don't already, contributing to OpenStreetMap from your phone is easy and feels very rewarding. I recommend StreetComplete for beginners and OSM Go! once you want to start editing features
    • aembleton 6y ago
      I can't find osm go! on the play store. Have you got a link?
• firebaze 6y ago
  Our company is degoogling by switching from angular to react, but of very profane causes: we don‘t trust them anymore based on their sunsetting history. Maybe that‘ll be the driving force. We’re a (by far) market leading B2C & B2B company in a “non-shithole” G7 country. Yes, Facebook is not a real improvement, but at least they eat their own dog food!
• corobo 6y ago
  Just calendar automations to go! Edit: aww, they bought nest didn't they. Dammit Google you weirdo Borg creep. Oh yeah people use their DNS to resolve my domains.. and every site that uses them for hosting.. and my work email.. oh wait youtube
• 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
  I would love to see a similar list for de-Apple-ing. Apple's anticompetitive and monopolistic practices with the App Store, the terrible direction MacBooks have taken, its price gouging on hardware... the list goes on. Google is saintly by comparison.
  • afro88 6y ago
    There's no need for a list. To de-Apple, in the context of those 3 examples, is to not buy or use Apple hardware. That's it. Apple is saintly by comparison.
    • tgvaughan 6y ago
      Apologies for running slightly off topic, but there's another way to look at this. The fact that Apple services like FaceTime and iMessage are restricted to Apple hardware means that those of us who haven't bought into this ecosystem encounter a fair amount of pressure to do so. So I think Apple's "saintly" behaviour is also self-serving.
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  • hu3 6y ago
    Plus Apple makes devices that harm the environment by being hard to repair by design. edit: It's a well known, documented fact that Apple hardware is hostile towards the environment. Your downvote wont change that.
    • Razengan 6y ago
      > It's a well known, documented fact that Apple hardware is hostile towards the environment. Source? Apple is 100% green in some areas and they have good EPA ratings. https://www.apple.com/environment/ https://www.apple.com/environment/
      • hu3 6y ago
• fareesh 6y ago
  Toughest ones for me would be Search, Android, YouTube. The rest should be easy enough.
• usb0 6y ago
  thanks for the list but we've seen such things from time to time and yet no one to my knowledge ever tried to measure their effectiveness.
• usb0 6y ago
  thanks for the list but we've seen such things from time totime yet no one ever tried to measure their effectiveness
• loph 6y ago
  I use duckduckgo for search, I have the DuckDuckGo privacy extensions installed in Chrome, along with EFF Privacy Badger. I'm not that worried about Google. I did de-facebook myself. IMHO Facebook is far more invasive, far more harmful than Google.
  • coronadisaster 6y ago
    > I'm not that worried about Google. doesn't look like it since you are using Chrome...
  • Eupolemos 6y ago
    > I have the DuckDuckGo privacy extensions installed in Chrome Why not just use Firefox?
• gerash 6y ago
  I think the mistake Google is making is not charging high prices a la. Apple for their products. It'd result in a big drop in user base initially but over time people will respect it more and stop writing up articles on how to stop using a free ad supported product in favor of a set of random toy projects
  • simplehuman 6y ago
    If anything it will help people realize they are being toyed around by Google and there are better products out there
• meabed 6y ago
  Thinking that other corporates won’t use your data is surprisingly naïve! Apple use privacy as a brand value and not because the company or shareholders really cares, if there business dry out, you think they won’t use your data. same goes for all corporates. I find it most important is you get best service no matter what company is / I wouldn’t mind if company use my data to give me and Other users better service and benefit in the process! You would do the same if you build your own product!
• plexiglas 6y ago
  Several months ago I took small steps towards this direction. It started with downloading Firefox on desktop and web. I love Firefox mobile. It's performant and supports multiple tabs. Also comes in Dark Mode. Next came email, which was difficult. I'm still transitioning. Protonmail was my pick because of the price point and ProtonCalendar (currently in beta). Gmail and Gcal are deeply integrated and wanted an alternative that could offer a similar experience. The only con here is that ProtonCalendar is web only (please support on mobile soon, Protonmail!). Duckduckgo is a solid search alternative. Results are quality. Between these services, browsing is a joy again.
  • efreak 6y ago
    The easiest, laziest way to remove google from your life is too simply stop using services as they shut them down. Instead of transferring from play music to YouTube music (play music is shutting down sometime after October, according to an email I got yesterday), I'm looking at setting up funkwhale or some other self-hosted music service (maybe just nextcloud? Not sure yet).
• minton 6y ago
  Good luck finding an alternative to YouTube without trash content. I can’t imagine any competition anytime soon.
• y2bd 6y ago
  Any recommendations for email providers that support wildcard addresses (e.g. I can just give someone foobarbaz@y2bd.email without having manually set it up beforehand and it works)? I currently use ProtonMail which does support this, but PM is still lacking in terms of usability. I looked at some of the other well-known mail providers and was surprised to see that this wasn’t as supported as I’d expect (or, at least, they don’t prominently advertise this in their docs).
  • itzael 6y ago
    Fastmail supports regex and wildcards off the top of my head, as I have them set up with my own personal domain. My financial accounts for example are in the format of “bank+xxxxx@domain.tld”
    • y2bd 6y ago
      Do you know if they’re required to use the +alias format? I’ve been burnt in the past by bad contact forms silently stripping out special characters out of email addresses.
      • y2bd 6y ago
        Verified for myself that it does, thanks! Given how popular FM is I don't know why I missed this prior.
  • eblanshey 6y ago
    Runbox
• simonkafan 6y ago
  It's interesting to see how Google turned from a respected company everyone wanted to work at to a "persona non grata" within just a few years. I wonder what were the main reasons for this change?
  • gerash 6y ago
    Perhaps heavy negative campaigning previously by Microsoft (Scroogled?) and still by Murdoch's media outlets had at least some effects. Their fail fast, watch growth metics and bad product leadership also don't help
    • liability 6y ago
      Google has the lion's share of the blame for their negative reputation, not microsoft and fox news.
  • millimeterman 6y ago
    I think public opinion on data collection and targeted advertising has really changed in the past couple decades. No one really thought or cared about it when Google was founded, whereas now it's devolved into mass hysteria.
• throwaway5752 6y ago
  If only Google were my 10th biggest problem. Try to get Exxon, Shell, et al out of your life who aren't violating abstract principles but are literally killing the planet. Then let me get unethically farmed or raised foods out of my life (which, thanks to the US preoccupation with corn and the nitrogen it requires, are frequently overlapping with petroleum). Then let me get Oracle and Microsoft out of my life. Then let me get the Murdoch empire out of my life. Then let me get Facebook out of my life. Then let me buy a consumer good that isn't designed for obsolescence. Then let me get intermediate middlemen in the healthcare system in the US out of my life. Then I'll take an eye at Google.
  • twicetwice 6y ago
    Why Microsoft over Facebook and Google? Recently I've been thinking that MS is the FAMGAN/whatever that I'd be most willing to work for, so I'm interested to hear your case.
    • throwaway5752 6y ago
      Because I saw how they behaved in the 90s, see how much passive telemetry they collect with their share of the OS market, how much they push Windows logins with antipatterns, and because they own Github (when now controls npm). edit: Let me say some nice things about them. I put them towards the end for a reason, and they probably don't belong with Oracle. I don't think they are a big problem in the world, if at all. They aren't the company they were in the 90s. Gates has become one of the worlds most staggeringly successful humanitarians because of his direct effort and indirectly from the giving pledge, and it has redeemed him many times over again. Nadella seems like a decent person and truly great executive, and they have improved enormously as a company under him. I would probably work for them. But I don't have any problem with Google, either. What Microsoft does have is a vastly greater potential for abuse.
  • mattigames 6y ago
    Buying a Tesla or something similar shouldn't be enough to very Exxon/Shell out of your life? Or you mean more abstractly? (E.g. the people transporting your food, mail, et al)
• aftbit 6y ago
  Google Voice is the hardest service for me to replace. I don't see any alternatives on this list. I appreciate that they let me seamlessly send and receive calls and texts from my Android phone or my desktop. I have a hard requirement that my phone should be optional for all parts of my communication workflow.
  • twicetwice 6y ago
    Same. I could probably de-Google pretty quickly—my primary email is on my own domain now—were it not for Google Voice, which I rely on daily. And since I have to rely on it, might as well use the rest of Google's services, since they're so damn convenient.
  • xnaas 6y ago
    You got me curious (I don't use Google Voice, but my dad has for a very long time) and I started to search around. It looks like all the alternatives are either expensive or shitty. :/ Edit: The universally accepted "best" seems to be Grasshopper[1] which is $29/mo or $26/mo billed annually ($312/yr). [1] https://signup.grasshopper.com/plans https://signup.grasshopper.com/plans
  • Zak 6y ago
    Google Voice also works if you have internet access, but not mobile network connectivity, and it works while overseas to provide a fully-functional US phone number (you do have to use a standard paid US mobile number to set it up, but do not need to retain it afterward).
    • efreak 6y ago
      > you do have to use a standard paid US mobile number to set it up, but do not need to retain it afterward If someone else registers Google voice with that number, you're going to have a hard time. It'll be removed from your account, and you can't use Google voice without a US phone number.
      • beagle3 6y ago
• major505 6y ago
  For e-mail I use kolab. Nothing special. But covers email, calendar and a little storage for a fair price.
• 734129837261 6y ago
  I think Google is great. It's convenient. Their search results are tailored to my liking, I love Gmail, I adore Google Docs/Sheets, and there are tons of tools I use almost every day as well. Honestly, the "switching away from [nameHere]" trend is so tiresome. Good job, you're a unique little snowflake now. You don't have Facebook, no LinkedIn, you don't use Google but DuckDuckGo, and you're even switching away from GitHub now it's owned by Microsoft. What's next? No more StackOverflow? No more using that popular package manager and, instead, installing all that stuff manually? Why aren't you a sheep, using Linux like all those others. If you want true anonimity and control you build your own OS. And all those microchips are scary, better reinvent the entire computer just because they might track and trace you. Where do you draw the line? You're making life harder on yourself. But okay, privacy is a thing. Right. Yet you're using a computer. Most of you won't be on a VPN every single day. And those who are, are probably on a commercial VPN. Or worse, a free VPN. Because if the service isn't the product... who is? Hmmmmmm.
  • eckza 6y ago
    I'm so glad that you are so happy with your choice of products and services. For the rest of us, it's very liberating to have some agency over who owns our data. Any agency at all.
  • i_cannot_hack 6y ago
    > I think Google is great. I use Google's products daily and agree they are often better than the competition. But do you not at least see the potential for a problem when gigantic semi-monopolistic tech companies control major parts of the societal methods for discourse and discovery, while collecting personal data from almost everyone? Are people who worry about this so unreasonable that they are deserving of flippant insults and name-calling? > What's next? No more StackOverflow? No more using that popular package manager and, instead, installing all that stuff manually? You give no convincing reason why that would be a probable next step, if you even believe it yourself. You buried your own point beneath so many layers of sarcasm that it is neither humorous nor insightful.
    • bb88 6y ago
• beprogrammed 6y ago
  Some really good add-ons there I had never heard of, decentraleyes for example.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• mastazi 6y ago
  For me the hardest part of avoiding Google is AMP, especially on mobile, where apps like Twitter redirect all links to their AMP equivalent by default. Does anyone know a good way to avoid AMP reliably on mobile? What I currently do is pretty convoluted (see below). On my iPhone, I use a DNS-based ad-blocker[2] and I just associate amp.* to 0.0.0.0 so most amp pages will fail. When the page fails to load, in the address bar I edit the URL manually and remove the "amp" portion, and finally I'm redirected to my news article. Needless to say, sometimes this gets annoying so when I'm in a hurry I might disable this DNS rule temporarily. On desktop, on the other hand, it's much easier because I use an extension that blocks AMP automatically[1] [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amp2html/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amp2html/ [2] the app AdBlock for iPhone/iPad can import "PiHole compatible" lists (such as the ones at https://firebog.net/ https://firebog.net/ ) and it does dns-level content blocking (in addition to that, it also works as a standard ad-blocker within Safari) https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adblock/id691121579 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adblock/id691121579
  • bepvte 6y ago
    On twitter, im fairly sure AMP links are not hosted by Google. They use a standard developed and pushed by google but I believe the pages themselves are not served by them unless they are accessed from google search.
• manigandham 6y ago
  My biggest usage is Chrome profiles. I use several for various personal and work accounts which means passwords, history, extensions, open sessions, and everything else are all nicely contained under separate Chrome windows. Nothing else comes close to this kind of convenience and UX, and it's more secure since accounts are not co-mingled.
  • iimblack 6y ago
    That sounds the same as Firefox profiles, plus Firefox has containers for more sectioning of data within a profile. Is there something Chrome has here that Firefox doesn’t?
    • manigandham 6y ago
      Chrome profiles avoids having to create another (Firefox) account to manage the sync and data. Also Chrome has an easy menu for switching profiles and creates desktop/taskbar shortcuts for them. Firefox requires going to the about:profiles settings page to manage them. Also chrome profiles are integrated with G-Suite including security and organization settings. Overall Chrome's version is just smoother and easier to use compared to Firefox. Mozilla should add better UI/menus and SSO for Firefox Accounts to get closer.
      • commoner 6y ago
        Unlike Chrome profiles, multiple Firefox containers can be used in the same window. Containers are different from profiles: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/multi-account... Containers are also extensible through add-ons. For example, the following two add-ons automatically isolate Facebook and Google into separate containers to reduce the impact of their tracking: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-cont... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-contai... Temporary Containers goes further by allowing the user to create disposable containers either automatically or on demand: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con... Firefox's two-tier approach (profiles and containers) to data isolation is much more flexible than Chrome's profiles. Containers handle many common use cases (e.g. logging on to the same site with multiple accounts simultaneously), and are very easy to use.
• slater 6y ago
  the suggested swisscows.ch seems to have Russian connections
• efitz 6y ago
  I dropped Google about a year ago, with two exceptions: (1) none of the YouTube replacements are even in the same ballpark (2) Google Translate still gives me the best results for the Thai language. My big problem with Google is that they are evil and in denial - they want to slurp up all the data about everyone and monetize it, but they honestly don't get why that is bad. My list: -ProtonMail -Firefox -DuckDuckGo -iCloud -Visual Studio Code (edited format only)
• nrev 6y ago
  It’s interesting to see this as #1 just now. It’s a little tangential, I’ve actually been doing a lot of researching on the recent changes to Search and fallout that users have reported + some further research into my own anecdotal change in experience of Search results for the better part of the day; plus it’s something I’ve been researching on and off since the beginning of 2020 when I noticed a significant change in the quality of search results I was getting (I.e. trying to search for web pages, published resources that I know are on the web and that I’ve located with Search, prior, and unfortunately, having a harder time with that. Plus there’s some other UI/UX changes in that time frame, too). That said, I have essentially come to the conclusion that I need to pivot away from Search and find/use one of the other search engines or risk further diminishing return within a number of research tasks. :(
  • drivebycomment 6y ago
    Do you have examples for "trying to search for web pages, published resources that I know are on the web and that I’ve located with Search, prior, and unfortunately, having a harder time with that" ?
• dawnerd 6y ago
  I've got almost 12TB stored in my Google Drive so that alone makes it basically impossible to switch. There's no other provider I'd trust with that much data for the price (G Suite). As much as I'd love to switch, it's just not worth the headache IMO.
  • timbit42 6y ago
    You should be featured on an episode of Hoarders.
• neilv 6y ago
  That's what I'd consider way too many extensions. For one reason, browser extensions with user bases sometimes get sold to malware/spyware companies, so even if they started out as good for you, they can become very bad for you, without you knowing. (There's a few browser extensions I'd be surprised if ever got sold, like uBlock Origin, but I don't know as much about most of the rest of them.) Another thign to be aware of is that unusual combinations of filtering and other privacy-seeking behavior on the Web is usually detectable, and can permit you to be fingerprinted better than if you'd been using more common combinations. Though presumably most parties don't care enough to put the work into detecting that, I'd guess some subsets of users probably are targeted for at least experiments in this regard, such as Tor users. (I have this "problem" myself now, since I've been building a training/familiarization set of 10K+ Web request filtering rules, which I dogfood with uBlock Origin in Tor Browser, and the set is pretty unique to me. If I cared more about my immediate personal privacy, rather than on ongoing understanding of practical Web privacy&security, I wouldn't do all that counterproductive work, but would instead pick some popular stock stuff to run.)
  • neop1x 6y ago
    It is pretty bad that they started Degoogle page with largely Google-unrelated privacy-focused extensions which break websites and sometimes do more harm than good. For example ClearURLs by default disables ETag header which is very important for caches to work. Yes, ETag can be used for tracking but there are many many more ways to "track" people and many definitions of tracking, installing such extensions won't fully protect them from all kinds of tracking. Instead, by installing extensions like this people end up with lots of websites broken and slow browsing experience and blame Firefox for lagging and unresponsiveness. How do I know? I have gone through all this. And I ended with only a few extensions - uBlock Origin, Neat URL, I don't care about cookies, ViolentMonkey, Stylus, Cookiebro, User agent switcher. I especially don't recommend ClearURLs, Privacy Badger, Decentralays. Users or these are begging for problems [1]. Look at how bloated their code is. Prefer smaller extensions focusing on one thing only. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/g2dett/firefox_75_slow_with_many_tabs_browser_issue_or/ https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/g2dett/firefox_75_...
• Yc4win 6y ago
  If anyone is struggling to replace specifically Google's search, may you check out SearX. It's FOSS, ability to self-host, no-logs, and does a wonderful job if you have set it up correctly. A working instance to test before hosting your own: https://searx.info https://searx.info Let me know how you liked it.
• major505 6y ago
  In the process of doing the same Gmail -> Kolabnow Android -> Iphone (more expensive, but can last longer with reasonable user experience and I can resell for better prices) Contacts and calendar -> Apple icloud Google Maps -> apple maps (still have to use waze sometimes, traffic information works best in Waze in Brazil) Search -> Duck Duck Go Web -> Firefox (The multi account containers in Firefox is to good to stop using) Google Drive -> Ondrive (I had to buy an Office 365 licence to my dad. End up buying the family licence, and 1 TB cloud storage endupd being very usefull). A shame I really dont use office, but, is there in the cloud if I ever need to open a word doc. I still havent found a viable alternative to Youtube videos, but, I think is a matter of time for an alternative product reach enouth users)
• balthasar 6y ago
  The peer-tube recommendation was really embarrassing.
• zzo38computer 6y ago
  Other than the Google web search (which I don't always use; sometimes I use other web search engines, and often I don't need any web search at all), the other Google product I use is V8 (although not Chrome or Chromium, I do use V8).
• gorgoiler 6y ago
  One of the top entries in this article is a browser extension called minerBlock. It’s there to stop rogue websites using your browser’s JavaScript runtime for cryptocurrency mining. I don’t know much about mining, but in the era of ASIC miners, how much dollar value does a minute or two of JS mining in Firefox get you? How many visitors do these rogue sites get? It seems like a lot of effort to get a couple of cents for free, but I assume I’m hugely underestimating. I’m also still puzzled by why my partner’s MacBook was overheating last night, and wonder if I’ve just found out why.
• warabe 6y ago
  When I tried to change my gmail address of Firefox account, I realized it is not possible, because email address is the ID of the account. Dear Mozilla folks, please let me change my email address of Firefox account.
• tjbiddle 6y ago
  Whenever this topic comes up, it's always all or nothing. If you're looking to detangle yourself from the Google ecosystem, you can do so one tool at a time over any period of time. Maybe you'll get all the way off it, maybe just 80% - either way, you will make progress.
• erdaniels 6y ago
  Ignoring reasons why I try to avoid Google, the following has worked well for me: Mail - FastMail (spam detection not great but still works) Search - StartPage (still google but proxied since DDG results are inferior in my experience) Browser - Firefox (syncs to all my devices) Maps - keyworded bookmark on Firefox to go to DDG maps powered by Apple Maps. Otherwise on phone it’s Apple Maps Storage - Dropbox Docs - local files synchronized to Dropbox Last remaining service: YouTube. I’d love for the content providers I consume from to start posting on other platforms but that’s just not the case. For that, I use a google account for just YouTube.
  • wpdev_63 6y ago
    dtube is an interesting alternative to youtube. It's a youtube clone built on ipfs. The only problem it doesn't have the same amount of content as youtube - nobody does.
• jshc 6y ago
  The moment you have your data in the hand of a cloud based service, it's no longer under your control. isn't it?
• brainless 6y ago
  Why not take this the way we should, as consumers: Cut all big cos out. The Internet already gives us tools to run everything as a community, yet we are not doing that. We can fund open source software/hardware, crowdsource their continued development. It takes leadership, like the big cos have. But we can get it done.
• systematical 6y ago
  What about amazon?
• charliebrownau 6y ago
  Charliebrownau Recommended Alt tech List - 15/Aug/2020 ====================================================== * Fakebook >> Minds + Mumblit * Twatter >> Gab * Youtube >> Bitchute + Hoshpod * Streaming >> JoshwhoTV + Mumblit * Google E-Mail >> Tutanota + Protonmail * Google & DDG Search >> swisscows/SearX/Qwant * Google Maps >> OpenStreetMap * Medium >> Publish0x * Skype/video chat >> Jitsi Meet * Whatsapp/fb/etc >> Matrix/Session/Delta.chat/Self hosted XMPP * Discord >> Mumble or Matrix * Reddit >> Poal.co + Voat * Wiki >> infogalactic * Free image site >> pic8.co or imgtc or tineye * meetup.com >> @GetTogether * Instagram >> pixiv.net * Streaming chat/superchat >> Entropy * Xsplit >> OBS * Pateron >> Subscribestar * Spreadshirt + teespring >> TBA * MS Win 8/8.1/10 >> Linux OS (PC) * MS Office >> Libreoffice * MacOSX >> Elementary OS (PC) * Android >> Lineage OS * Playstore/fdroid >> Aptoide/Apkpure * VPN (home PC) >> Mullvad VPN * DNS (home PC) >> DNS.Watch * Domain >> Epik & Unstoppable Domains * Hosting >> Vultr * Maillist/mailchimp >> Mailcow * view Youtube anon+Privacy - https://instances.invidio.us/ https://instances.invidio.us/ * View twatter anon+privacy - https://nitter.net/ https://nitter.net/ ============================================================================
• known 6y ago
  Google is your Friend -> Google is your Enemy
• Casereads 6y ago
  I don't think it's easy to change that. Must be interesting to experiment in the countries where Tech options are available, in some countries, Google is the only thing known. More education is needed to implement something like this.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• Obsnold 6y ago
  I would be happy to pay Google a monthly fee for all their services. Mainly just so I feel like a customer instead of a product and to give me the peace of mind that if something goes wrong I can talk to a person that can help me. At the moment I'm looking out for whatever service provider will let me have the equivalent of email, drive, calendar, docs and sheets all in one place. Does anyone know of any that might have slipped under my radar? Edit: anything comming up that is I can't see anything on the list that does everything. My best bet at the moment is proton will come up with something.
  • dontblink 6y ago
    Then why don't you? GSuite is a thing.
    • Obsnold 6y ago
      Huh I guess I assumed that was only for businesses and not personal use. Thanks I'll take a look!
  • hu3 6y ago
    There's https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html which even lets you have email@yourdomain.com running under Gmail. To get rid of ads and get Spotify-like music on Youtube there's: https://www.youtube.com/premium https://www.youtube.com/premium
  • DJN 6y ago
    Office 365?
  • Razengan 6y ago
    > email, drive, calendar, docs and sheets all in one place. Try iCloud.com I think you can only sign up from an Apple device but otherwise it's all free (except for extra storage) and doesn't spread your data around.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• Santosh83 6y ago
  The real promise of the semiconductor revolution which made it simple for almost every human being to literally own computing machines which are more powerful than supercomputers of a few decades back is the promise of entirely owning ALL your data and performing your own computations locally and merely communicating with other peers by means of dumb pipes. Just changing from Google to N does nothing towards this goal, and we're now even further away from the promise of a decentralised Internet than ever before I believe. Wake me up when a non-tech user can spin up an email server the same way they can open a browser and and send emails to any other person on the net. And with phones being powered on 24x365, one would think the dream of being a home server would be easier than ever... But of course this way promises no money/profit for businesses in general. Or at least less so, since vendor-lock in and data monetisation would be much more difficult if not impossible.
• ROARosen 6y ago
  The .dev tld is “owned” by Google. Pratice what you preach...
• jimbob45 6y ago
  The problem with de-googleifying is, to me, best summed up by Google+. When it was released, we were all extremely eager to leave Facebook’s abusive policies and needless redesigns for anything better. It was only one we discovered that Google+ really didn’t solve any issues at all that we moved back to Facebook. Sure, Google steals your data. However, we have no guarantees that these new companies won’t steal just as much once they get a big userbase too.
• M0r13n 6y ago
  Dont just drop Google and switch to another large company or service. Take the chance and set up your own infrastructure! One reason why our web became so successful is Decentralization. But, in recent years I feel like we are heading to more and more centralized web, where only a few big companies control the entire ecosystem. Take email and instant messaging as an example. Everybody can maintain it's own, independent mail service, but everybody can still communicate with each other. On the other hand there are very few messaging services that are totally incompatible to each other. Depending on where you live, you might only use iMessage, Whatsapp or WeChat. Even tough it may be technically possible to use other services like Signal or Threema, you are most definitively going to experience a lot inconveniences. In my personal bubble only very few use these apps and as if that were not enough, these few users are also distributed across a wide variety of different services. If it were like mail, everybody could use his/her preferred messaging system and still talk to each other. Thats only one example and I dont want our web to be like Whatsapp in a few years from now. So I encourage everybody to try and use his own infrastructure. You are also going to learn quite a bit while doing so. If you are unsure about where to start, here is a nice list of awesome self hosted services, that are relatively easy to deploy: https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted
  • StreamBright 6y ago
    >> Take email and instant messaging as an example. Everybody can maintain it's own, independent mail service, but everybody can still communicate with each other. It is easier said than to be done. I was hosting my own email for a long time and with the current state of play it is not as easy to provide the same UX as Gmail or Outlook. Even AWS struggles to provide an email solution that is worth switching over.
    • sildur 6y ago
      It’s been ages since I used GMail web interface. It feels slow and cluttered. I prefer a local email client.
    • M0r13n 6y ago
• shrimpx 6y ago
  What’s a strong alternative for admin.google.com? Most importantly, making an org with a custom domain and managing users with email addresses on that domain.
• tarun_anand 6y ago
  If anyone is interested in a commercial alternative to Google's Premium Analytics services, please PM me. If you are a startup we have generous free plans for you.
• md5person 6y ago
  To people using custom domains (for email, etc): what is your plan in-case you end up losing the domain name (either temporarily, or otherwise)? How do you prepare for this, reduce the risk, etc? Losing your domain name can happen due to any number of reasons: hacked account (at the registrar), social engineering, etc. There can also be issues with registrars going bankrupt, increasing fees (see dot-org case), laws changing (especially with ccTLDs - see the dot-EU case with British citizens post-brexit) and much more...
• nhoughto 6y ago
  ironic that this is on .dev, of which google runs the TLD =/
• petjuh 6y ago
  Am I the only one left in the world who actually likes Google and has a positive opinion of them? I remember switching from AltaVista to Google and thinking they're much better. I remember a friend forwarding me an invitation to join GMail on its first beta day and how impressed I was with the 2.2 GB storage. I remember switching to Google Chrome when I read about its beta release on Slashdot. It was much faster than Firefox. Personally, the company I loved to hate was Microsoft, and for me Google was the good guy. Question to those who hate Google - are you old or young? Have you used the Internet in the 90s, before Google came? Have you used email where you lose your emails once you exceed the 20MB capacity, and you need to pay money to increase it? Have you used Internet Explorer because it was everywhere? Have you seen what Google replaced?
  • erklik 6y ago
    I am young. I don't hate Google. I honestly don't see what is that horrible thing that I must hate them about? Advertisements? Are we gonna pay for Gmail and Youtube? Is it them treating certain search results as preferable? Yes, that's the point of a search engine. The worst thing that Google does is just shut down good services too quickly but that's not really something to hate them that much for. Maybe I am just ignorant.
  • patd 6y ago
    Most of your positives are more than 10 years old. In the meantime they've remove the "Don't be evil" motto, their Android/Chromebook support is very short lived, they've killed countless services people relied on, ... I don't think Google is evil like Microsoft was in the 90s but I don't blindly trust them as I might have done in the past.
    • Crash0v3rid3 6y ago
      It's really sad how much this misinformation gets spread... Don't be evil is literally the last line of their code of conduct: https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/ https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/
• baidoct 6y ago
  The link seems down to me.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• tarasmatsyk 6y ago
  Perfect timing, was just about to start migration. My plan so far: - Gmail -> Fastmail + custom domain - GDrive -> Nextcloud + openoffice (it's really nice, includes notes and libreoffice) - Chrome -> Firefox (FF made a tremendous progress in last 5 years) - Google -> DuckDuckGo No disrespect to Google, the whole platform is very convenient, but it's going to be a fun experiment to use services that are dedicated to one goal (email-only, storage-only b2, search only etc) The only one I look to stop spending time at is YouTube, hard to replace, however bloggers have to start protecting their value and own their things.
• toastal 6y ago
  For me, I think the biggest Google crutches I have left are: Translate and Voice. I run Havoc OS with microG, use Firefox, and everything else people suggest, but I can't shake these two. Living in foreign countries it's obviously useful, and I would have been royally screwed in Vietnam without the offline translations when I crossed the border and no place was accepting my ATM card. Related usually to financial institutions, I don't keep an active US phone number and my Voice account is basically a 2FA front for places not using TOPT or FIDO2 for security or I couldn't access my cash or credit.
• wiradikusuma 6y ago
  For those who want to cut Google but still have to use AdWords (you advertise your product), AdSense/AdMob (you earn from ads), Play (you publish Android apps), and Contacts (integrated with your Android phone) -- what's your setup?
• LockAndLol 6y ago
  Just in case, there are other projects creating lists like these: - https://degooglisons-internet.org/en/alternatives https://degooglisons-internet.org/en/alternatives - https://prism-break.org/en/ https://prism-break.org/en/ - https://www.privacytools.io/ https://www.privacytools.io/ At least prism-break and privacytools have a community-process for suggestions and evaluations. I don't know how this project does it.
• beilabs 6y ago
  Suggestion, I've a small business with 10 employees. What's the best email solution that won't cost an arm and a leg other than Google Apps?
• matthewfelgate 6y ago
  Try cutting Microsoft out of your life.
• playpause 6y ago
  I switched from Gmail to using my own domain via ProtonMail. I persisted about 6 months with its terrible UX. Tried Mailfence next, same problem, lived with piss-poor UX for a few months before giving up. (I used Mailfence mainly with Apple Mail via IMAP, which was OK, but I frequently had to log in to their web interface to tweak settings etc, and it’s awful.) Looked at a few others, but my need for a reasonable UX pushed me back to Gmail last year, this time with my own domain on G Suite (I figured paying a fee means I’m marginally better protected from account lockouts and other Google shenanigans, and at least I can take the domain with me when I leave). It’s so nice not to be constantly battling with email these days. But... in the back of my mind I do still want to get my email off Google. For privacy, control, and because I think getting off other Google services will be easier after that. If I’m going to put the effort into switching again, I feel it might as well be to a somewhat privacy-focused email service (preferably not located in Australia or any jurisdiction that could force the company to break their own privacy guarantees without telling me). It doesn’t need to replicate Gmail’s feature set perfectly — I’m willing to put time into learning a whole different approach to email if necessary, but only if the UX/design is coherent and inspires confidence. Has anyone with similar requirements got any recommendations?
  • lowkeyokay 6y ago
    So the argument here seems to be: ‘I want to ditch google because of privacy concerns but, I will not compromise on usability’. Bad UI should not be that hard but google has many popular feature because they can analyse user data. I hear the same argument with search and maps. Yes, DDG and Apple maps is not quite as good as Google’s. But, if you want privacy you will have to sacrifice something. Google has so many resources to put into their core product. Off course they will be better. And they use user data for some features which privacy focused companies just can’t provide. You just can’t have it all.
    • playpause 6y ago
      I’m not making any argument. I’m stating my personal needs and asking if anyone has any recommendations so I can move off Gmail. Edit: I’m OK to sacrifice some UX quality btw, just not as much of a sacrifice as ProtonMail and Mailfence. And my love of Gmail’s UX has little to do with any creepy features that rely on data or fancy algorithms. It’s mostly stuff that any competitor could offer. Coherent design language across platforms, and generally well designed features that don’t compromise between flexibility and ease of use.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• einpoklum 6y ago
  My biggest problem cutting out Google from my life is with Maps. Now, I can do just fine with OpenStreetMap (and such) as a physical or even a road map; but there are just so many venues and businesses that are listed on Google Maps... with their opening hours and links to websites. Also, a lot of municipalities transfer public transport data to Google, which you can't quite get anywhere else (ignoring Google-reliant apps). Search, browser, email - I don't use them.
• anta40 6y ago
  I work as an Android app developer. Is there any significant disadvantages if I wipe Android off my phone and install LineageOS instead?
• GlenTheMachine 6y ago
  Still no replacement for Google Voice. That’s my one indispensible service. Having a single phone number not connected to my carrier that a) can ring all my numbers and b) transcribe voice mail is incredibly convenient. I would pay a monthly fee for that service and do it gladly. But nobody offers it.
• mjollnir 6y ago
  This is a really useful resource overall. Some of these alternatives, however, offer low content moderation compared to their corresponding Google products. I see no disclaimer, for example, that bitchute is known for harboring conspiracy theories, often after they are banned from youtube: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitChute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitChute It is worrying to see it presented as an "alternative" to youtube without this disclaimer.
• asix66 6y ago
  I'm assuming those moving to fastmail from gmail are not concerned about mass surveillance. Fastmail is an Australian company, a 5-eyes country, subject to the Assistance and Access Bill [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_Australia#Assistance_and_Access_Bill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_Australia...
• deleted 6y ago
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• flanbiscuit 6y ago
  Personally I'm not looking to stop using their services completely but I am trying to make sure they can't cripple my life by locking me out of my Google account. The chance is low because I haven't personally released anything on any of their platforms or don't depend on any service of theirs for my livelihood, I'm just your normal passive Google user. My plan: - use a custom domain for my email (actually done this already) - switch to Fastmail instead of Gmail - update all services I have signed up for - remove any important docs off of Google drive and either switch to sync.com (they have E2E encryption) or use syncthing - I've already started using syncthing to sync my keepassxc DB between all my devices - start monthly backups of the rest of my Google drive but still continue to use it (this includes all my Google Photos as well) onto a local NAS (which I have yet to buy, suggestions welcome) - I've already switched to FireFox on both desktop and Android as my main browser but I still use Chrome as well, just more for work I still plan on using Google products but I just want to make sure if they go away or if their algorithm mistakingly decides one day that I've violated something and locks me out without recourse that I'm not totally screwed.
• freediver 6y ago
  I genuinly wonder - what does go through the heads of those 100,000 very smart people that work at Google, many of them reading this forum, when they read a thread like this? Do they think 'oh it is HN again', do they discard this as irrelevant noise, do they know something that all the people posting here don't, do they still strongly believe in their mission, or do they get a gut-wrenching feeling that one day it may be all over? If you work at Google, please throw in your 2c.
  • stingrae 6y ago
    I used to work there a couple years ago and honestly this seems a bit silly. People are at Google are pretty product focused. Sure you can go and use the items on this list. But I don't think they will be better. Google has spent a lot of time and money to make a set of best in industry tools and people use them as a result.
    • zwkrt 6y ago
      “People at google are pretty product focused” Oh so they just don’t think about it at all. To be product focused is just to do what your boss tells you to do. Sometimes the easiest way to go about things is just to fully embody one’s role as a cog with no agency.
      • stingrae 6y ago
        no. everyone is trying to do the right thing for the users and do what it takes to make the best experiences.
        • fsflover 6y ago
          Are tracking and ad targeting based on it (i.e. manipulation) also considered “the right thing for users”?
          • cbolton 6y ago
            It's how they fund the products, and their users choose to use them knowing that they are being tracked to be shown ads. So yes.
• dt3ft 6y ago
  I read a story where someone lost access to their google account and had to go through living hell to get the access back. Reaching a human for support was outright impossible. Privacy was not that big a deal for me, but if I had lost access to my email for any reason, I would have had zero rights to demand what is mine - because nothing is really mine, as I have never paid for the service, so I was never a customer to begin with. I moved off gmail last year after using it since 2004 (I remember getting an invite and using the service even before it was launched).
  • deleted 6y ago
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  • chapium 6y ago
    Recovering a gmail account is pretty impossible, at least that story had a happy ending.
    • jackson1442 6y ago
      I mean honestly, I don't mind that as long as it isn't a problem concerning recovering your account after an account takeover. If a potential hijacker can't get into my account through social engineering, great.
      • chapium 6y ago
        Why have account recovery at all then?
• pkamb 6y ago
  At the very least, turn off Google account creation pop-ups on every other random site: https://superuser.com/questions/1414410/how-to-disable-pop-ups-for-google-yolo-one-tap-sign-up https://superuser.com/questions/1414410/how-to-disable-pop-u...
• hank_z 6y ago
  Just simply move to China.