Eliminate Google from your life
But you can live life without Google. Here's how. Let's start with search.
You may think you can't find anything on the Web without Google, but you can. In fact, you have several worthwhile options to choose from. Bing is the next most popular search engine and it will soon power Yahoo search. You can also try out Ask.com or, for some old-school fun, AltaVista.com.
I recommend Bing. Just change that default search engine in your Web browser and the majority of your Google interaction is probably gone.
Next, let's look at Gmail. How can you live without free unlimited storage and POP3 e-mail access? Yahoo Mail. Yes, Yahoo Mail. It may not be the belle of the ball, but it does all those things and the interface, lifted from Zimbra, works just like a modern e-mail program--unlike Gmail.
Along with Gmail, you may be using Google Calendar. You can export that calendar and then switch to Yahoo Calendar. With Yahoo, you can share the calendar, access it online, and sync it with desktop calendars.
Another biggie is documents. If you may think no other company is doing online document collaboration better than Google, you haven't tried ZoHo. It does everything Google Docs can do and it does some things better.
Replacing YouTube is trickier. If a video's on YouTube and your friend sends you the link, you might just have to click the link and be done with it. But you don't have to use it to share your own videos. For those, I recommend using DailyMotion.com.
For still photos, replace Picasa with Flickr. And to replace Picasa's editing features, use Paint.NET on Windows and Acorn on Mac OS X.
My list does hand over your calendar, photos, and e-mail to Yahoo. So if you want to diversify more, try using Microsoft for the e-mail or calendar.
That's my list. Do you have suggestions for other replacements? Let us know in the comments below.
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So who said Yahoo! or Microsoft's gonna keep all my data safe and private?
And search and docs are only thing...videos are another: as of now YouTube and GoogleVideos are THE most popular sharing sites on the net - you simply can't eliminate them when the rest of the world uses it.
Eventually all big things become bad...and Google's probably no exception. But what I think is gonna happen in the end is people keep using it all inspite the flaws in it...sorta like MS Windows:
Everyone loves to pick on it - but the fact is that more computers run MS software than all their competitors combined.
1) The article did not mention Google Analytics. This is a pretty powerful peice of google that convinces web administrators to allow Google to collect information about it's visitors. a LOT of sites (including mine) use this. And so you are interacting and providing information to Google even if you don't know it.
2) It seems like the premise of the article is "you may want to stop using Google because they are too big and have too much personal information about you". Well, alot of these options are switching to Yahoo/Microsoft which doesn't really fix the privacy problem, just changes who the privacy is with. The article did say you can "spread out" your services with different companies, but is it better to have all your personal information in one place for one company or scattered across dozens of different companies? I don't have the answer, but it is obvious that this article doesn't either.
Either way, I am just trying to get across how very shallow this article is. there is no meat, and felt like I wasted my time watching it.
I also use YouTube, but thats unavoidable.
Looking at Google and MS I can say pretty much that MS is more evil than Google.
I am a Linux user, I use GMail for e-mail, Open Office for Documents, I search with Google/Altavista/Lycos/Ask most of the time. So I do use a bit of each others without using MS. Oh I forgot, I useYahoo for all the Spam mail.
My impression of the How to De-Google yourself was more of a sales pitch to say, buy more Microsoft.
PS, tell Rafe to be so paranoid about Google when MS is even worse.
Looking at Google and MS I can say pretty much that MS is more evil than Google.
I am a Linux user, I use GMail for e-mail, Open Office for Documents, I search with Google/Altavista/Lycos/Ask most of the time. So I do use a bit of each others without using MS. Oh I forgot, I useYahoo for all the Spam mail.
My impression of the How to De-Google yourself was more of a sales pitch to say, buy more Microsoft.
PS, tell Rafe to be so paranoid about Google when MS is even worse.
i just have one suggestion: for photo editing have you tried gimp2.0? i love it i've done some great stuff with it.
Agreed that its as powerful as photoshop but free - but then the everyday user's not gonna have a picnic with it.
Be Well.
You mentioned Zoho Docs but didn't mention Zoho Mail or Zoho Calendar.Neither are linked to search engines and therefore less information is accumulated.
This would eliminate all that is not Google, e.g the iPhone, Microsoft Office, Outlook Calendar, Bing, Internet Explorer, Windows, Yahoo Mail, iPhoto, libraries in general, Facebook, MSN messenger, networks, Bing Maps, Dailymotion and newspapers respectively.
The information accumulated by Google is used to make your searches more comprehensive. No one is actually looking at it, just computers. This why Google's motto is 'don't be evil' - because people are so paranoid about their information Google has to take an ethical stance that companies like Microsoft and Apple don't.
GO GOOGLE!!!
Do you really beleive that? Do you really beleive that Google is not like every other corporations that only care about the bottom line? Do you really beleive that they care about you and me? The only thing they care about you and me is this. 1) How can you and I make Google richer
- by GSOgymrat March 15, 2010 3:12 PM PDT
- What timing! I just eliminated Google 2 weeks ago ago. I've never liked Google as a company and the Buzz debacle was the last straw. I know the other companies have their issues but I would rather not support Google.
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