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No More Google

nomoregoogle.com

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Re: No More Google

#131

Post by jagged-chisel »

jason0597 wrote: post #34

These anti-Google discussions come and go on the front page of Hacker News, but I'd be curious to know how many people actually degoogle their lives drastically after reading such discussions and articles. I believe it's more of a case of "Oh my god, Google is so disgusting! Shame on Google!", and then people open up a new tab in Chrome to search on Google about their next restaurant destination as if nothing happene…

Personal anecdote, software engineer/techie for 25+yrs:

I never react immediately. Unless directly affected by an event, I accumulate information over time and it will influence my decision making. Reacting is too disruptive to my own life, and those of the people I support (e.g. family.) Would an article like this make my family change? No. Many don't care; most don't understand the impact on themselves.

My De-Googling has started with my browser. Moved all my open tabs and bookmarks to Firefox, took some time to settle in, now I avoid Chrome except to debug frontend code. Email? I have a Gmail account that I use for all my personal things, so I need to find something else and migrate my usage (and maybe archive my Gmail account so I can search it.) I haven't been creative enough to find a domain name for personal (and family) use. I've been paying for G Suite (for email only) on a business domain, so I need to find something else (and maybe archive the inboxes ...)

There's friction. I'm busy. I'm lazy. I know there's a chance I could suddenly lose access for no reason on the free account.

Re: No More Google

#132

Post by TheCapn »

jason0597 wrote: post #34

These anti-Google discussions come and go on the front page of Hacker News, but I'd be curious to know how many people actually degoogle their lives drastically after reading such discussions and articles. I believe it's more of a case of "Oh my god, Google is so disgusting! Shame on Google!", and then people open up a new tab in Chrome to search on Google about their next restaurant destination as if nothing happene…

Its a slow crawl for me.

I practically removed everything Chrome in my life. I never was much of a desktop user, but I used their Android app out of convenience and have gone 100% Firefox.

I stopped using Google Search and instead use Bing for most things... yeah yeah I know, one demon for another, but Microsoft Rewards have saved me some measurable cash so far and I have pretty much isolated my Microsoft life from any other online personas.

I'm starting to eyeball moving away from Gmail more and more as these stories show up. I've had my own domain for years now and have my incoming mail forwarded to gmail. It won't be hard to migrate that end of things.

I don't see myself ever dropping Android, but I'm not going to be replacing my Pixel with another one. I'll probably go towards something less "high end" and just root it for my next phone.

I think my experience is the same as many. Its not an all or nothing thing, its about gradual, manageable changes that happen over time.

Re: No More Google

#133

Post by cm2187 »

jason0597 wrote: post #34

These anti-Google discussions come and go on the front page of Hacker News, but I'd be curious to know how many people actually degoogle their lives drastically after reading such discussions and articles. I believe it's more of a case of "Oh my god, Google is so disgusting! Shame on Google!", and then people open up a new tab in Chrome to search on Google about their next restaurant destination as if nothing happene…

Or rather who went all-in on Google only to de-Google now. I would struggle to de-Google myself since I have been trying to stay away from Google for a long time already.

Re: No More Google

#137

Post by dylan604 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #120
pb7 wrote: post #84

Hacker News is incredibly biased against Google. There was recently an informal survey[0] in "Tech Twitter" (i.e. other technical people) regarding opinions about the top tech companies and Google scored second highest overall behind Apple, with something like 85-90% positivity overall across different questions. Facebook, for reference, was something like 35-40%. [0] https://coda.io/@sriram-krishnan/2020-state-of-th…

>93% are in tech industry. no offense but is it surprising that the people who likely draw paychecks from those companies like them? The question is framed as "does tech company X do good for the world?" Presumably if you're working in tech you're already self-selected to agree with that question or you're likely hypocritical enough to answer yes anyway. Seems like asking people in the oil industry if oil company X i…

I don't know, I work in tech and I think FB,G,etc are pretty nasty. While they may have started out as a net-positve, I think the results are now a net-negative from advertising and/or social media centric companies. Apple maybe making us pay premiums for everything it sells, but I still think that's at least one or two tiers below the levels of evil from the others.

Re: No More Google

#138

Post by OJFord »

SeyelentEco wrote: post #118
ravedave5 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've started using firefox and duck-duck go and I cannot belive how much less targeted the ads I get on youtube are now. It's awesome. I plan on removing more and more as I can. Email is a hard switch.

Why are less targeted ads better in your opinion? Just curious because I've read studies that show people prefer ads that are relevant to them if they have to watch ads.

(Not GP but) In the context of this discussion, because they're creepy, an invasion of privacy. In practice, because their relevance to me means I can see through them, that the product's crap, or I already have it, or if I wanted it it wouldn't be the lack of an advert stopping me getting it, etc.

Re: No More Google

#139

Post by diarrhea »

OJFord wrote: post #128
diarrhea wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! With mail, search, maps and various others, there is no community lock-in. Who cares who else uses their same mail provider? YouTube is the only thing where I do not see an alternative, simply because that website is not about the product itself, but about the people who use it. Replacing the product is easy-ish, but the people are impossible to.

Discovery aside (not a big deal for me personally, most recent recommendations have come from HN & channels I already watched) you can just 'subscribe' with some other tool, and download or watch on youtubenocookie, or just use the site not logged in? I suppose it just depends what you're trying to achieve by 'degoogling'.

That works, but wouldn't for me. Discovery is precisely the primary service YouTube does for me. I really only ever click around the top two rows on the main page, all automatic YouTube suggestions. They are relevant and interesting enough for this to work consistently.

Re: No More Google

#140

Post by chiefalchemist »

Of the browsers listed, which if any do multiple users? I silo my clients / projects by giving them their own instance (read: user) of Chrome.

If I could get past that then the rest would fall into place.

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