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What I use instead of Google services

gabrielweinberg.com

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Re: What I use instead of Google services

#251

Post by nmjenkins »

x0x0 wrote: post #243

Is there a good, paid, gmail alternative with the same conversations, labels, keyboard controls, and decent search? Ideally with both webmail, calendar, and an app? Also, ideally not associated with microsoft, yahoo, or even the valley? I keep seeing fastmail but it looks like just another email provider. I keep pondering creating a service like this for say $40/year, but I'd rather to it than build it. I'm currently…

FastMail has conversations, keyboard controls and decent search, with both webmail and calendar and is $40/year for a 15GB account…

(Disclaimer: I work for FastMail. But seriously, it sounds like we might be just what you're looking for).

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#252

Post by ndomin »

dskhatri wrote: post #99
astrocat wrote: post #75

> "Like most people, I don't like to be tracked. I also am the founder of the search engine that doesn't track you, DuckDuckGo." It pains me to hear intelligent people talk about being "tracked" as something "bad" a priori. While there are certainly plenty of examples of abuse of knowledge, I tend to think of most "tracking" not as "stalking" but as "relationship building." Let me explain... Google is a service provi…

His point is more about not putting all your eggs in one basket; you certainly don't tell your barista about an upcoming physician's appointment, or that you are in the market for a house. Your barista is also disconnected from parties who may leverage the information you provide him/her. Similarly, you don't tell your broker that you prefer Ethiopian coffee. Google offers so many services that it has a much broader…

Except maybe your barista happens to know a real estate agent and will get you an amazing deal on a new house. Something you might not have gotten if you didn't tell them...

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#253

Post by jboynyc »

genericuser wrote: post #65

Is there a good non-google alternative to Docs / Drive. I read the article hoping to find one, but didn't see any mention of one. Having a non-google version of a service which allows collaboration and modification of documents through a web browser, without additional software installed would be nice and I feel it must exist, but don't know where to look. Anyone got a recommendation.

The App Suite provided by mailbox.org is quite good, but I'm not sure how well it does with collaboration.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#254

Post by b3n »

nmjenkins wrote: post #251
x0x0 wrote: post #243

Is there a good, paid, gmail alternative with the same conversations, labels, keyboard controls, and decent search? Ideally with both webmail, calendar, and an app? Also, ideally not associated with microsoft, yahoo, or even the valley? I keep seeing fastmail but it looks like just another email provider. I keep pondering creating a service like this for say $40/year, but I'd rather to it than build it. I'm currently…

FastMail has conversations, keyboard controls and decent search, with both webmail and calendar and is $40/year for a 15GB account… (Disclaimer: I work for FastMail. But seriously, it sounds like we might be just what you're looking for).

Only issue I have with FastMail is they don't accept Bitcoin.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#255

Post by wyclif »

lubujackson wrote: post #158
dskhatri wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His point is more about not putting all your eggs in one basket; you certainly don't tell your barista about an upcoming physician's appointment, or that you are in the market for a house. Your barista is also disconnected from parties who may leverage the information you provide him/her. Similarly, you don't tell your broker that you prefer Ethiopian coffee. Google offers so many services that it has a much broader…

And Google has already misused their trust with Google+ and the YouTube "real name" integration. As the integration becomes more complete, the ramifications of subtle changes become more problematic and hard to predict.

Google+ dropped the real name policy a long time ago.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#256

Post by victorhooi »

lubujackson wrote: post #158
dskhatri wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His point is more about not putting all your eggs in one basket; you certainly don't tell your barista about an upcoming physician's appointment, or that you are in the market for a house. Your barista is also disconnected from parties who may leverage the information you provide him/her. Similarly, you don't tell your broker that you prefer Ethiopian coffee. Google offers so many services that it has a much broader…

And Google has already misused their trust with Google+ and the YouTube "real name" integration. As the integration becomes more complete, the ramifications of subtle changes become more problematic and hard to predict.

See, I don't get the whole furor over this. Most people just seem to be using it to join the Oh Noes, Google is Evil crowd without actually explaining how it negatively affects them personally.

I've always just used my real name online - so instead of having an email address like sexy_asian_chick88@hotmail.com, I just used my name. It's a little less embarrassing when you have to give it to people, and I sort of got over those sorts of email addresses in grade 5.

Sure, that means people can link what I write online, but it's hardly worse than if they just searched for my nickname, and did some legwork. And really, what am I writing online that is so private and secretive that I need to firewall it from my actual identity? I wouldn't be having such discussions on a public forum online - I'd do it offline. If

Now, sure, if I was living under a oppressive regime, and had to get data out - but let's be honest, as a percentage, how many of us HNers fall into this category?

And even then, would you really be doing it on YouTube? YouTube is a bastion of stupid (but funny) cat videos, parody videos, movie trailers and music covers.

I'm fairly sure a whistleblower would be using something a little more appropriate, and where privacy was actually a feature.

And quite frankly, considering the awful quality if YouTube comments, I'd applaud any attempts to make people even slightly accountable for the awful and often hateful c*ap they write on YouTube comments.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#257

Post by itazula »

lvs wrote: post #109

This website is somehow blocked for me: This Page Cannot Be Displayed Based on your corporate access policies, this web site ( http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2014/09/what-i-use-instead-of-google-services.html ) has been blocked because it has been determined by Web Reputation Filters to be a security threat to your computer or the corporate network. This web site has been associated with malware/spyware. Threat…

Same here, the "web reputation" is low according to SenderBase. See http://www.senderbase.org/lookup/?search_string=www.gabrielw...

"Fwd/Rev DNS Match" is said by SenderBase to be "Unknown" (this is odd). Checking on my laptop:

$ dig +short www.gabrielweinberg.com

gabrielweinberg.com.

96.227.124.38

$ dig +short -x 96.227.124.38

blink.duckduckgo.com.

It is on the Verizon FiOS network, which has a number of poor reputation hosts:

http://www.senderbase.org/lookup/org/?search_string=Verizon%...

The site appears within the CBL too, which gives some details: IP Address 96.227.124.38 is listed in the CBL. It appears to be infected with a spam sending trojan, proxy or some other form of botnet.

It was last detected at 2014-09-03 06:00 GMT (+/- 30 minutes), approximately 4 hours ago.

This IP address is infected with, or is NATting for a machine infected with "Gameover Zeus" or "GOZ" - previously it has been referred to as "ZeusV3" or "p2pzeus". GOZ is a version of the ZeuS malware that uses peer-to-peer (P2P) command and control mechanisms.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#258

Post by sasidharm »

flinkblink wrote: post #95
astrocat wrote: post #75

> "Like most people, I don't like to be tracked. I also am the founder of the search engine that doesn't track you, DuckDuckGo." It pains me to hear intelligent people talk about being "tracked" as something "bad" a priori. While there are certainly plenty of examples of abuse of knowledge, I tend to think of most "tracking" not as "stalking" but as "relationship building." Let me explain... Google is a service provi…

Nice to hear thoughts on this subject i agree with. Myself, i've long used Google and hadn't cared at all what information they collect about me. Rather, i openly give them information. Sure, if the world turns to hell and suddenly the government is at my door because Google "knew too much" then the naysayers can laugh at me all they like.. Then again, the world has turned to hell already, so is it really a time to l…

Congratulations. You get the google customer of the year award.

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#259

Post by DanBC »

victorhooi wrote: post #256
lubujackson wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Google has already misused their trust with Google+ and the YouTube "real name" integration. As the integration becomes more complete, the ramifications of subtle changes become more problematic and hard to predict.

See, I don't get the whole furor over this. Most people just seem to be using it to join the Oh Noes, Google is Evil crowd without actually explaining how it negatively affects them personally. I've always just used my real name online - so instead of having an email address like sexy_asian_chick88@hotmail.com, I just used my name. It's a little less embarrassing when you have to give it to people, and I sort of got…

Great - it works for you. But you go further and claim that it must then work for everybody.

> I've always just used my real name online - so instead of having an email address like sexy_asian_chick88@hotmail.com, I just used my name. It's a little less embarrassing when you have to give it to people, and I sort of got over those sorts of email addresses in grade 5.

You can't see the value of bob@corp.example.com and barbera@mytransself.example.com for someone to blog about the widgets their company makes and also about the best places to buy clothes?

> sure, if I was living under a oppressive regime, and had to get data out

People are beaten every day in the US for being gay or trans or whatever. Sometimes murdered. Often discriminated against. While I feel Brandon Eich's opposition to gay marriage is abhorrent I kind of feel sorry for him being kick out of a job for it.

> And really, what am I writing online that is so private and secretive that I need to firewall it from my actual identity? I wouldn't be having such discussions on a public forum online - I'd do it offline.

There are so many reasons people might want to talk about something in a public forum but not want to tie it to their identity. At least, they may start wanting to keep it private before they reveal their identity. Why deny them that choice? But here's a list:-

- battered women

- battered men

- victims of sexual abuse

- members of the glbt community, especially if they're preparing to disclose to family members etc.

- people with "embarrassing" diseases.

- people who face stigma - being religious or not religious in a not religious or religious area; having severe and enduring mental health problems, etc.

This is just a partial list! There are very many more!

> And quite frankly, considering the awful quality if YouTube comments, I'd applaud any attempts to make people even slightly accountable for the awful and often hateful c*ap they write on YouTube comments.

Have you read comments under newspaper articles recently? Real names, horrible comments.

Improving comment quality is important. So far it seems that you need to set expectations and have some kind of moderation. This can work even with anonymity. See, for example, early /R9K/ (at least when they had the robot image) for an example of not terrible commenting without real names. But some people really strongly prefer real names - http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/UseRealNames

Re: What I use instead of Google services

#260

Post by DanBC »

makosdv wrote: post #195
joeclark77 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true of doctors with coffee bars, but it is absolutely NOT true of Google. Google is an advertising company, period. All of the thousand things they do are for one purpose: to sell advertising based on getting better and better at knowing the customer and targeting ads you're likely to click on. Even if Google does say that some app is firewalled, the implied follow up is "...until customers stop caring"…

Exactly. I was surprised by Youtube yesterday when it recommended some videos related to some Google searches I had just made... Creeped me out a bit.

The video on deman service for UK "Channel 4" has coke-cola ads that take my username (from the 4OD login) and superimpose text on a bottle image.

It's really creepy, even though it's obvious and trivial.

It's also counter productive - I haven't used 4OD for ages precisely because of that creep factor. Even though I knew they were doing it before the ad.

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