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A megathread on breaking away from Google

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Re: A megathread on breaking away from Google

#11

Post by craftyguy »

rinze wrote: post #10
taylodl wrote: post #8

YouTube is the most difficult service to break away from, simply because it has all the content - and more and more of my entertainment time is spent watching YouTube. I'm thinking YouTube was Google's most ingenious purchase.

YouTube subscriptions work fine with RSS, just to add to this. I have them added to my ttrss, don't even have to log in to watch videos (which is not exactly 'breaking away from YouTube', but I think it's a healthier approach.)

Or use hooktube.com, which strips out all Google-related tracking stuff from video links on YouTube. There are even greasemonkey scripts to rewrite YouTube.com URLs to hooktube.com automatically.

Re: A megathread on breaking away from Google

#12

Post by ejrv »

I've recently moved from Gmail to Fastmail (which also has a calendar), and to MicroG + Yalp instead of Google Apps on my phone. Both have worked very well for me as privacy-conscious alternatives, with minimal hassle after the initial setup. I'm still using Google search, YouTube, and Chrome on the desktop, for lack of alternatives I've gotten along with, but that's about it. I'm very happy how much less of my data that exposes to Google, but at the same time, it does still feel like a bit of a pyrrhic victory.

Re: A megathread on breaking away from Google

#13

Post by sgtmas2006 »

craftyguy wrote: post #11
rinze wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube subscriptions work fine with RSS, just to add to this. I have them added to my ttrss, don't even have to log in to watch videos (which is not exactly 'breaking away from YouTube', but I think it's a healthier approach.)

Or use hooktube.com, which strips out all Google-related tracking stuff from video links on YouTube. There are even greasemonkey scripts to rewrite YouTube.com URLs to hooktube.com automatically.

I just use youtube-dl, it's simple and can be automated easily. Toss a URL at it and get a nice quality version. I really wish people would start publishing videos elsewhere for download, with high bitrate versions. I can (and do, as we all) live with the artifacts, but I don't mind some bandwidth. Even if it were patreon exclusive (to offset the costs for hosting) I would become a patron for that alone.

Re: A megathread on breaking away from Google

#14

Post by d0lph »

FrozenTuna wrote: post #6
craftyguy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, but instead of getting in bed with microsoft I've moved to using FLOSS components.

That's what I was thinking. Are people just leaving google to use all the microsoft products? That makes 0 sense to me.

Some of it is for support reasons.

Re: A megathread on breaking away from Google

#16

Post by fwdpropaganda »

go_prodev wrote: post #15

What's with all the tinfoil hats? Google != Facebook. Unpopular opinion perhaps, but I believe they use the information I share to enrich my user experience. It seems less about monetization and more about providing customized services. What am I missing?

> I believe they use the information I share to enrich my user experience.

Manifestly false. They use your information to target ads. The pages that you've browsed will affect the ads you see on youtube and the paid search results you get. That's right, the paid search results you get are modified not to enrich your experience, but because some advertisers pay more for people with your browsing profile. Does that improve your experience, or does that improve google's advertiser's experience?

Re: A megathread on breaking away from Google

#17

Post by Something1234 »

sgtmas2006 wrote: post #13
craftyguy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or use hooktube.com, which strips out all Google-related tracking stuff from video links on YouTube. There are even greasemonkey scripts to rewrite YouTube.com URLs to hooktube.com automatically.

I just use youtube-dl, it's simple and can be automated easily. Toss a URL at it and get a nice quality version. I really wish people would start publishing videos elsewhere for download, with high bitrate versions. I can (and do, as we all) live with the artifacts, but I don't mind some bandwidth. Even if it were patreon exclusive (to offset the costs for hosting) I would become a patron for that alone.

How would you deal with video hosting? It's a high bandwidth application, and would be very expensive to self host.

Just an hour of streaming takes about 1 GB or $.25 if you're using AWS. Multiply that out across a couple hundred users and many hours of streaming that's very expensive.

Re: A megathread on breaking away from Google

#18

Post by toomuchtodo »

Something1234 wrote: post #17
sgtmas2006 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just use youtube-dl, it's simple and can be automated easily. Toss a URL at it and get a nice quality version. I really wish people would start publishing videos elsewhere for download, with high bitrate versions. I can (and do, as we all) live with the artifacts, but I don't mind some bandwidth. Even if it were patreon exclusive (to offset the costs for hosting) I would become a patron for that alone.

How would you deal with video hosting? It's a high bandwidth application, and would be very expensive to self host. Just an hour of streaming takes about 1 GB or $.25 if you're using AWS. Multiply that out across a couple hundred users and many hours of streaming that's very expensive.

Dedicated servers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17113244

Re: A megathread on breaking away from Google

#19

Post by relics443 »

fwdpropaganda wrote: post #16
go_prodev wrote: post #15

What's with all the tinfoil hats? Google != Facebook. Unpopular opinion perhaps, but I believe they use the information I share to enrich my user experience. It seems less about monetization and more about providing customized services. What am I missing?

> I believe they use the information I share to enrich my user experience. Manifestly false. They use your information to target ads. The pages that you've browsed will affect the ads you see on youtube and the paid search results you get. That's right, the paid search results you get are modified not to enrich your experience, but because some advertisers pay more for people with your browsing profile. Does that imp…

YMMV but it improves my experience because I get to use all these great products and features Google has, without lifting a finger, and in most cases without paying a penny. All I have to do is ignore the ads on my screen (which my brain seems to already do).

Re: A megathread on breaking away from Google

#20

Post by Something1234 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #18
Something1234 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you deal with video hosting? It's a high bandwidth application, and would be very expensive to self host. Just an hour of streaming takes about 1 GB or $.25 if you're using AWS. Multiply that out across a couple hundred users and many hours of streaming that's very expensive.

Dedicated servers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17113244

Even with dedicated servers, the new hosting site would have to find a source of revenue. The creators typically don't want to shell out. The sites with premium hosting are still kind of terrible too. They offer very little in the way of discovery of new content or moderation.

https://vimeo.com/upgrade

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