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What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

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Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#261
post #129

When 90% of the people you email are on Gmail or GSuite does Proton mail really help? Yeah you get end to end encryption for other Proton mail users, but I don't know a single one. Google is going to have all of my emails anyway. As for Facebook it is best just to quit. I don't even use Facebook to keep in touch with friends anymore. The value in Facebook is some of the groups. Local neighborhood groups seem to be th…

WhatsApp is massive in Europe, I'm currently in Spain and nobody uses anything else.

Argentina Brazil and France also are very Whats app dependent

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very big fan of Elgg https://elgg.org I believe that this social networking framework has a great future. Look at these projects which created using this engine: Minds https://www.minds.com Pleio https://pleio.nl GCconnex and GCcollab https://github.com/gctools-outilsgc/gcconnex There is even a Platform that will make building apps based on Elgg easier https://wzm.me/ Right now this project needs more cotributors…

Can you give a summary of what it is for and why people use it? I read the landing page, clicked about, looked at the first page of the API docs and it's still not really obvious to me what it is for or how it's actually used. What problem is it solving? Standard web backend for common social media platform stuff?

> What problem is it solving? Standard web backend for common social media platform stuff?

Basically, yes it's, you can make own online community, or niche social network for your users/products. But this is very useful to make unique social app based on an open source framework.

If you want to launch startup then social interaction between people is very important and Elgg allows you to do it quickly. In addition, it's very secure code with wide features for growth and integration with other applications.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#263
post #104

Social media is about the social aspects, the media aspects, or a little of both. HN and news aggregators covers the media aspect just fine. Social is a lot harder - you want to know what your old classmates are up to and what interests them.

> you want to know what your old classmates are up to and what interests them

Honestly, no I don't.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#264
post #146

Google maps with Street View, Translate and Search are 3 things I would not want to loose. FB - If it disappears tomorrow I would not even notice.

If it supports the languages you use, deepl.com is as good or better than Google Translate these days.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#265
post #26

DuckDuckGo, IRC, and usenet would work.

Yes, I use IRC and Usenet; I suggest these and also Unusenet (which, like Usenet, is based on NNTP and can be used with NNTP software). Search is the only function of Google that I use, although I do not need to make searches on Google much. Sometimes I find what I want on Wikipedia, sometimes in local documentations (in man pages and so on), sometimes bookmarked stuff, etc. So, I do not need the Google search so much, but sometimes it is helpful (and sometimes it is worthless; I try to find something but whether I try Google or DuckDuckGo, I cannot find any).

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#266

How does search work for end to end encrypted apps/email? If they can't read it, they can't index it either. Does the index live locally?

Before IMAP, people stored their own mailboxes locally. I imagine you'd just build local search indexes like Thunderbird back in the day.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#267

I'm actually building an alternative to Facebook for people fed up with Facebook and just want to stay in touch with people and not much more. I would go as far as calling it a glorified address book with some extra features for having up-to-date contact details for everyone that has granted you the privilege of having them and a very cut down version of the feed. Which brings me to the question of monetisation. I do…

I’d prefer people working on making existing alternatives better in terms of features than have yet another “Facebook killer” that doesn’t survive. Check out the Fediverse, help the alternatives for Instagram and Twitter thrive. If you want to create something independently, I’d suggest a perfect replica and replacement for Facebook Groups. We need what’s not yet supported by the current crop of FOSS alternatives and…

100% on the fediverse!

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#268
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some options: a) Also using competition, prices and money, but with factories, companies and lands organized by worker's cooperatives, with the profit shared according with some logic not based in mere property. b) Using only prices and money while keeping updated data about production and consumption, and updating prices based in these data. Perhaps easier with modern technology than in the past. The information abo…

I think that a) already happens when a company shares its profits with the workforce. Mere competition will force the competitors of such a company to do that as well to attract talent. Item b) sounds like capitalism and blockchain to me :) About item c), heuristics and politics don't go well together, according to my intuition. But these are just my opinions. This is a fascinating topic.

There were some nasty edits from the parent

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#269

Search: DDG is the obvious answer. But also reducing usage of general search is a major life improvement. Wikipedia and Stack Overflow have reasonable built-in searches, as do most sites I view as reasonable sources of information. Most discoverability comes from feeds (blogs, HN, Reddit)--searching limits you to terms you've already thought of. General search seems to lead either to the places already mentioned in g…

>Facebook: Does this even need a replacement? Do you go to parties? Serious question. It's hard to discover events without Facebook these days. It's the only place some promoters advertise.

Word of mouth. Spotify. Eventbrite. Meetup.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#270
How can you escape network effects? Not at all. Thats what they are. You cant force the public to leave this abusive relationship with a privately owned main street.

The only thing that could do that- is another layer around the whole eco-system, that subverts it and surplants it. I can not see anyone of the alternatives trying this. Those who pose a real danger (instagram, using the want for generational different medias) are bought.

The only way to escape, is to encourage institutional blindness in big companys. Convince microsoft that a desktop windows needs to be on there cellphones and tablets.

Convince google that no product except of search is actually viable- and these little turtles should all die fast before even reaching the ocean.

Tell facebook, that all that is longterm sellable is user-data, not user-usefullness.

The best way to archieve a new competitor, is internal self-sabotage of market dominant forces.

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