How to Live without Google

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
Remove Google from your life? Yes, it can be done, according to DuckDuckGo: the search company has a new post regarding alternatives to many Google services, such as Search, Gmail, YouTube, and Maps. Unsurprisingly, they recommend their own site/engine for web searches, while FastMail, Vimeo, and Resilio Sync are mentioned as potential replacements for email, video, and file backup/sharing/storage.

Google trackers have been found on 75% of the top million websites. This means they are not only tracking what you search for, they're also tracking which websites you visit, and using all your data for ads that follow you around the internet. Your personal data can also be subpoenaed by lawyers, including for civil cases like divorce. Google answered over 100,000 such data requests in 2016 alone!
 
Megalith said:
Remove Google from your life? Yes, it can be done, according to DuckDuckGo: the search company has a new post regarding alternatives to many Google services, such as Search, Gmail, YouTube, and Maps. Unsurprisingly, they recommend their own site/engine for web searches, while FastMail, Vimeo, and Resilio Sync are mentioned as potential replacements for email, video, and file backup/sharing/storage.

Google trackers have been found on 75% of the top million websites. This means they are not only tracking what you search for, they're also tracking which websites you visit, and using all your data for ads that follow you around the internet. Your personal data can also be subpoenaed by lawyers, including for civil cases like divorce. Google answered over 100,000 such data requests in 2016 alone!
Click to expand...

IMHO people stick to Google because it works so damn well and integration is convenient (many people traded their privacy for convenience, if there really was such thing as online privacy). You also never know when other "good alternatives" start spying, I guess we currently don't know anyway as we just take their word for it. Don't want your data subpoenaed? Mind what shit you do and write, someone will have it, whether it's Google, ISP, etc. if you put it out there, it will not go away and probably come back to haunt you. Want things private, keep them off the internet.
 
"Remove Google from your life? Yes, it can be done, according to a competitor."

No doubt there is some truth in this, I just the premise... obvious. It's like "Breaking: US says North Korea Bad!"

Sure DuckDuckGo might provide decent results, and their paid email service might be good, but they recommend Apple Maps as a replacement for Google Maps? And Vimeo as a replacement for YouTube? The former could be argued as being valid, but the latter? Hardly! If you just want to host your videos somewhere, sure Vimeo can do the job, but MOST people are not on YouTube to share as much as they are to consume. And in that regards, Vimeo doesn't come CLOSE to the content availability that YouTube has. For me, I have specific channels on YouTube that I follow, which aren't available on Vimeo.

And once they got to "Android -> iOS" I realized this CERTAINLY wasn't going to be something I could take seriously. Google works too well for me to simply abandon it to Apple.

Sure, these alternatives might work, but at what risk? When will some of these no-names go under? (eg. Zoom, appear.in, signal) You go through the effort to convert only to have the product shut down, and that's AFTER you convince other people you know to use them so that you CAN switch in the first place!

Sure, there are privacy concerns with Google, but after last week's Equifax debacle, my info is likely already on the market - what's a little advertising really going to do to me?

Long live the Google Empire!
 
yeah, im still in the process of dumping it all, have google accounts since 2005 oh well, pretty much managed to disappear with all except for a new blank account because of the fucking android apps thingy, and still finishing to migrate all of my contacts and accounts from shops etc, its a whole lot of work.

i also block all google trackers with ghostery but im doing that for years because of website annoyances, just didnt saw mentioned in the article :p
 
*puts on tinfoil hat* If you're worried about what you're searching or what you're doing on the internet you might have other issues. Like previously said if you don't want people collecting data on you then you pretty much just have to stay off the internet. Is it right that they are collecting data on us? Nope! What the hell are we going to do about it? The Sheeple have already let things get way out of control already and it will take a total over throw of our current government to change. There are far too few of us that care these days to make a difference. Maybe one the "The One" will come rally us all together and make it happen. ;)
 
Rahh said:
The Sheeple have already let things get way out of control already and it will take a total over throw of our current government to change. There are far too few of us that care these days to make a difference. Maybe one the "The One" will come rally us all together and make it happen. ;)
Click to expand...

yeah, its pretty much unbelievable what muricans let captain black guy and his merry band of motherfuckers get away with, didnt saw much change now either
 
I think they're positing this as more a response to their increased popularity with Google's recent censorship tirade, but DuckDuckGo doesn't was to make it sound political.
 
Wow, that article was stupid. Seem like it was only for iOS people.

Gmail -> Fastmail? (paid) so a free service to paid
Maps -> Apple Maps? The shittiest map service? How about Mapquest? Nokia, Bing?
Android -> iOS (this one was funny)

iOS and Apple does the same tracking so...
 
Gasaraki_ said:
Wow, that article was stupid. Seem like it was only for iOS people.

Gmail -> Fastmail? (paid) so a free service to paid
Maps -> Apple Maps? The shittiest map service? How about Mapquest? Nokia, Bing?
Android -> iOS (this one was funny)

iOS and Apple does the same tracking so...
Click to expand...

But Apple doesn't sell the tracking to the highest bidder....
 
I don't/won't use google services or products unless I have no choice.... And that doesn't happen often.

Exception for youtube.... That is all.
 
In once sense this is comic.
"How to live without google" like it is really a life or death situation. The truth is you just need a few basic things to live, and live well. I would dare say the quality of life was much better before the modern age of mechanical, electrical and digital convenience. Consider the fact that getting away to a rural place and camping or ruffing it in some way can be such a fun and freeing experience. The times we shed collection of modern devices and take up a fishing pole and sit on a dock all day can provide you with a deep breath of air you have not known in a long time. And if you smuggled your cell phone the moment it rings a urge to throw it and see how many times it skips on the lake is a real temptation.
 
Gmail to Fastmail? I think I just got dumber reading this article.

I'm not a huge microsoft fan but I would rather use outlook.com free mail than gmail if i were to switch, which I won't, because it's too much of a PITA.
 
ob1 said:
I bet Bing feels the same way as this company...
Click to expand...

I bet that based on Microsoft's track record of monopolistic shame, if Bing was in Google's enviable position, MS would be doing everything exactly the same as Google and probably worse. It's not like they haven't been trying.
 
Last edited:
DPI said:
I bet that based on Microsoft's track record of monopolistic shame, if Bing was in Google's enviable position, MS would be doing everything exactly the same as Google and probably worse. It's not like they haven't been trying.
Click to expand...

Google has been behaving worse than Microsoft ever did.
 
I ditched Google a few years ago, when they updated their privacy policy to state they could do basically anything they wanted with any data they collected from the use of Google services, including the contents of email messages.

I don't feel as if I've sacrificed any convenience to do so, either. Microsoft's suite of applications and services are generally on-par with Google's offerings, with each company having pros and cons in various areas. Even an Android phone can be configured as a Microsoft-centric, Google-free device.

As has been so eloquently stated by others: When a company is providing you a service for free, you are not the customer; you are the product. While Microsoft is no saint, at least with Microsoft I'm a customer, rather than just another product of Google's data mine.
 
ProfessorUtopia said:
As has been so eloquently stated by others: When a company is providing you a service for free, you are not the customer; you are the product. While Microsoft is no saint, at least with Microsoft I'm a customer, rather than just another product of Google's data mine.
Click to expand...

I see it in the totally opposite way. If you are the product then, at least, the company that is using you as a product should have the decency to provide the service for free. Having to pay for the service and still be used as the product on top of that feels a lot like paying for cable and still getting ads... very one-sided.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
In once sense this is comic.
"How to live without google" like it is really a life or death situation. The truth is you just need a few basic things to live, and live well. I would dare say the quality of life was much better before the modern age of mechanical, electrical and digital convenience. Consider the fact that getting away to a rural place and camping or ruffing it in some way can be such a fun and freeing experience. The times we shed collection of modern devices and take up a fishing pole and sit on a dock all day can provide you with a deep breath of air you have not known in a long time. And if you smuggled your cell phone the moment it rings a urge to throw it and see how many times it skips on the lake is a real temptation.
Click to expand...

Consumerism is a shortcut to a quick reward. Like drugs.
Also we're being conditioned to follow and aspire to a particular line of 'progress'. Your thinking is unique in today's society but I'm not saying it's wrong or anything.
I like trains. When I travel by railroad, there are two types of people - those who stare out the window and those who stare at their devices.
The former group will have fewer problems adjusting to life should a collapse of civilization happen. The latter will find themselves jonesing for their fix.


spintroniX said:
For realz or you making it up?
Click to expand...

The infant had him at gunpoint
 
the thing with google is quite simple, if you supporting it now youre just supporting censorship, racism, leftism, terrorism, corruption and mental illness, if youre happy with that, have at it.
 
I used DuckDuckGo for a few months. Trying it out, not to be anti google, but anti carrier tracking my browser use more than anything else. What I have found is compared to Google Duck duck go is just a pain in the ass to use. It doesn't work nearly as well and it's search results for technical information are crap compared to what a quick google search can turn up. If you have to search for any kind of professional infomation the speed and efficiency of Google far out ways the paranoia worries of using someone like DuckDuckGo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top