What I Use Instead of Google • Hacker News Board

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#91

Post by cbradford » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:28 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #48

systemvoltage wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's just that their business model is to be selling hosted e-mail services Does anyone know if pro/business accounts with Google GSuite have better privacy than free accounts? Another counterpoint to my original post is - you can call someone at ProtonMail, can't do that with Google.

> Does anyone know if pro/business accounts with Google GSuite have better privacy than free accounts? Officially, I'm sure they claim that G-Suite data is not used for any advertising purposes. However, just like I wouldn't trust an alcoholic with guarding a warehouse full of booze, I wouldn't trust this promise especially considering they intentionally violate the GDPR with a misleading, obnoxious and non-compliant…

Agree. It is unlikely that google adheres to their ToS, it is more profitable to violate them and if you get caught do the usual "oops, our bad" like Facebook does regularly.

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#92

Post by hairofadog » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:30 PM UTC

reaktivo wrote: post #58

wtmt wrote: post #52

> Maps → Apple maps If Apple were a different company, it would've made maps available for use on web browsers and non-Apple devices. That could also help in a more rapid improvement of maps as opposed to the mostly-useless state it's been in (except for a few countries and regions in certain countries that Apple likes and works more on). > and still a little YouTube (anonymously in a Firefox container) If a Firefox…

Apple Maps is available on the web, DDG uses it for it's own maps

I was going to mention this too. However, to be fair to the parent commenter, Apple Maps on the web is only a recent development, it lacks a ton of the features of Google Maps on the web, and its world-wide coverage isn’t great. There’s also the fact that there’s no direct web interface for it, so if you were going to tell someone using a browser to “just use Apple Maps”, they would have to jump through some mental hoops to find a way to do that.

All that said, I’m optimistic and hope they move in that direction.

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#93

Post by rurban » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:31 PM UTC

Re Firefox vs Chrome: On Fedora chrome is unusable with newer video formats, you have to use Firefox. Which is better in all aspects.

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#94

Post by Hitton » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

nurusr12211 wrote: post #13

I prefer using the best technology over endless virtue signaling.

I don't care about virtue signalling, best technology is worthless when google's legendarily horrendous customer service/algorithms can screw you at any moment. So for me: GMail, GDrive, GCP, etc. are too risky; even though I use Firefox because of its customizability I could use Chrome(based) browser; GMaps and Youtube are fine; I use neither Google's nor Cloudflare's DNS, they have too much of my data as it is anyway and frankly speed difference between DNS providers is negligible; only time I don't act completely rationally is good ol' search - because I'm worried about google's monopoly I try to use/support an alternative.

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#95

Post by hairofadog » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:39 PM UTC

vinni2 wrote: post #21

Every time I try to get out of google they (my colleagues) pull me back in. They share documents in google docs and google drive. I have no choice but to keep my google account.

Firefox Containers are extremely helpful in this regard. I put off using them for a long time because i thought it would be a hassle but it’s super easy and keeps your work-related google activity segregated from the rest of your digital life. It also helps a lot with switching between google accounts; before I used containers I was constantly fighting with Google’s account switcher, which more often than not just straight-up didn’t work (it would either act like I had switched accounts but I hadn’t, or it would put me into a sort of endless “which account do you want to use / enter your password” loop.

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#96

Post by karlzt » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

Recommendations for good, helpful, non-toxic tools: https://goodreports.com/

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#97

Post by comeonseriously » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

> Maps → Apple maps

HERE Maps is good.

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#98

Post by kmclean » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

wtmt wrote: post #52

> Maps → Apple maps If Apple were a different company, it would've made maps available for use on web browsers and non-Apple devices. That could also help in a more rapid improvement of maps as opposed to the mostly-useless state it's been in (except for a few countries and regions in certain countries that Apple likes and works more on). > and still a little YouTube (anonymously in a Firefox container) If a Firefox…

> requires a lot more effort than just avoiding using google.com, youtube.com, gmail.com, etc.

Yeah this is fair! I don't want to give the impression that this is all it takes to get Google to stop stalking you. But I do think it at least helps. I found a lot of the chatter in the de-googling community to a bit purist and defeatist at times, but maybe I went too far the other way, here. I want to encourage people to do the same without thinking it's all hopeless or doesn't make any impact because Google's gonna get you one way or another, but I also don't want to paint an unrealistic picture, as if this is all it takes to wash our hands of Google's reach.

I updated the post to reflect this.

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#99

Post by matwood » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

powersnail wrote: post #3

> I suspect means it [DDG] would be a perfectly fine replacement for most people I suspect otherwise. DDG is as good as Google in certain topics, especially programming-related topics. But otherwise, not so good. Sometimes, it feels like it simply has indexed less pages than Google. But I still use DDG as much as possible, only !g when the results are unsatisfactory. I don't know how much it actually help DDG, though…

As has been mentioned many times, the problem (if you want to call it that) with DDG is that it does not personally tailor results. Google is great at deciphering what I mean because it has data on me. DDG doesn't have this data, so how I search needed to be tweaked. I rarely have need for the g! anymore.

Re: What I Use Instead of Google

#100

Post by kmclean » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

uniqueid wrote: post #46

The thing this article doesn't cover is that while you can (and imo should ) make all these changes, Google will still track much of what you do online. The internet is rotten with linked media, amp pages, blogs, and ads hosted on Google servers. If you want off Google, you should use something like Pi-hole to lessen that. Since it's DNS level only, I imagine even that won't make you invisible to Google. This was a g…

Yeah this is a fair point! I found the rhetoric in the de-goggling community to be a bit purist and defeatist at times and I'm more of a "better done than perfect" kind of person, but I also don't want to be unrealistic about Google's reach or suggest this is all it takes to escape it. I updated the post to reflect these thoughts. Thanks for the thoughtful comment.