Leaving Google has actively improved my life • Hacker News Board

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#181

Post by elxr » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:58 PM UTC

dandano wrote: post #152

> My inbox is so much cleaner now, and I patiently await the newsletters I’ve signed up for like a gleeful child waiting for the postman. The author didn’t go into detail here - but has anyone got a good system to achieve this? Or Is it a specific feature within Proton? I’ve just got mainly the one email and I’ve wanted to change to a better way for ages.

I use gmail, and I've managed to get about halfway there.

Almost every newsletter I get, I'm happy to see, even if I won't have the time to read 95% of them. I get close to no spam (I'd maybe get 1 spam mail every 2-3 weeks).

Just unsubscribe from everything you don't want, use a separate account for services that generate a lot of receipts/notifications, and block as soon as you stop caring about a particular sender. It's doable, just be diligent and be willing to spend some time curating what's allowed to go in.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#182

Post by amelius » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:58 PM UTC

yacthing wrote: post #113

amelius wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet is not free. Somebody is paying for those ads. And this somebody is us, collectively. And you know what? We are paying more than if we would pay for these services directly, because advertising companies are taking a cut. And on top of that we are paying with our data.

This is about as useful of an argument as when people say taxpayer funded services aren't free. Those who are wealthier pay more into the tax system, allow those who are less well off to gain access to things they normally wouldn't. This is a good thing. Likewise, those who are wealthier are buying more products that are advertised, allowing those who are less well off to gain access to the internet for closer-to-fre…

> Those who are wealthier pay more into the tax system, allow those who are less well off to gain access to things they normally wouldn't. This is a good thing.

And what if there was a company (let's call it Google) that was extracting huge sums of money out of this social security/welfare system? Would this make you think that perhaps something was wrong about it? And that the system could be more efficient without this company?

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#183

Post by futura_heavy » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 11:00 PM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #170

simon666 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So I feel pretty confident in stating that it's either gonna be ads or payments. I'm assuming you mean exclusive disjunction here, but in reality it's something closer to a conjunction, if not occasionally an inclusive disjunction. So many subscription services also have ads and if they don't, they eventually do. The problem isn't that people want things for free; hell, we all pay for access to the internet already…

Someone who is willing to pay for a service is also an extremely desirable person to show advertisements to. You've just demonstrated you have disposable income.

I think this is why so many YouTubers do sponsored segments: it’s the only way that I, a YouTube premium subscriber, will see an ad. (YT Premium still lets you skip to the end of the segment.)

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#184

Post by vvpan » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 11:03 PM UTC

pkilgore wrote: post #173

Fastmail and Kagi are not noticeable expenses (to me) but are a noticeable increase in quality of life. Might not have been true at one point but if you can spare the cost I highly recommend either.

Fastmail user for a decade. Does the job.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#185

Post by sedatk » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 11:05 PM UTC

s_dev wrote: post #129

hosteur wrote: post #118

Just use Kagi. I have been for several years now. I have not regretted it one minute. I have not missed Google at all. Kagi is just so much better. And I like the business model.

It is better, I was a paying subscriber. Then I realised they pay money to Yandex and I feel and obligation to support Ukraine right now. When the war is over or Kagi drop Yandex support I will be a paying subscriber again.

Kagi's response: https://kagifeedback.org/d/5445-reconsider-yandex-integratio...

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#186

Post by drnick1 » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 11:07 PM UTC

WarmWash wrote: post #37

The problem isn't Google. The problem is that people want a "free internet" without ads, and without any form of data harvesting. But they also don't want to pay any money, because the internet, as we all know, "is free". In 30 years, no one has figured this out. So I feel pretty confident in stating that it's either gonna be ads or payments. And if we switch to a payment model, then the internet becomes another syst…

> The problem is that people want a "free internet" without ads

Just run an ad blocker and be done with it. The business model of the website is not my problem; if websites cannot cover their costs without printing ads that I do not want to see, then they will disappear. We will be left with websites that are actually useful, for example businesses operating a website to sell things, or that are funded through donations (e.g. free software).

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#187

Post by yogurt0640 » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 11:09 PM UTC

tetrisgm wrote: post #167

Willish42 wrote: post #126

I've been meaning to get off Gmail, and Proton Mail does seem like my favorite of the alternatives from a quick glance, but I'm also concerned about privacy focused services like Proton getting blocked or compromised in the US... This was a pretty good read Also, > I do my best to boycott bad things. And I fail pretty often. I still use Amazon on occasion and I can’t get off Spotify. I use Uber and DoorDash a lot mor…

I switched from Fastmail to iCloud Mail and I’m happy.

I switched from iCloud Mail to Fastmail and I’m happy.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#188

Post by raincole » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 11:10 PM UTC

bitpush wrote: post #23

> I don't knowingly use AI > Sometimes I will use Kagi's "assistant" model whilst coding. Particularly to clean up existing code/stylesheets The only moral abortion is my abortion.

The trick is to say ignorant. If you know nothing about AI of course you're not knowingly using AI.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#189

Post by MengerSponge » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 11:14 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #27

bitpush wrote: post #23

> I don't knowingly use AI > Sometimes I will use Kagi's "assistant" model whilst coding. Particularly to clean up existing code/stylesheets The only moral abortion is my abortion.

Kagi's models are also incredibly bad. I can't imagine how this person believes they are getting fair value from them.

The subscription pays for competent search. Anything else is gravy

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#190

Post by mortos » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 11:16 PM UTC

ge96 wrote: post #171

Aurornis wrote: post #7

> After giving them a fair shot, I think I can now honestly say that Brave and DuckDuckGo are better than Google for >90% of searches I've had DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine for years and I couldn't disagree with this more. DuckDuckGo is fine for quickly getting to well known sites where I can't remember the URL, but it's objectively worse for trying to find everything from Reddit threads to Recipes. Their de…

Google's indexing is insanely quick too, I'll post a question on Reddit and I search Google and the reddit thread is there same day/minutes which is funny. False hope thinking someone else had my problem but it's me.

DDG (Bing I guess?) is pretty quick at that as well. 35 minutes later, your comment is already indexed.

Though I can't speak to their speed with Reddit, who is actively hostile to non-Google indexers.