This post is more than three years old so may contain incorrect information, or opinions I no longer hold.
De-Googling My Life Series
I love Google products. They’re easy to use, they look good, and for the most part, they work really well. I was having a conversation with a friend the other day, and we were talking about what would happen if Google closed their doors tomorrow. I quickly realised that I would be in a world of pain. No email, contacts, calendars, search, social networking, website stats and many, many more.
Not only that, but there are a number of concerns around privacy on Google’s services (or lack of). As the saying goes…
If an online product/service is free, you’re the product!
I don’t want to be Google’s product any more, so I’ve decided to do something about it – I’m going to try and De-Google my life. The chances of me completely removing Google from all facets of my life are near impossible, but I would like to find alternatives to the main services I use, such as:
- Gmail
- Calendar
- Contacts
- Search
- Google+ (Social)
- Website Stats
- Others?
The Problem
Love them or hate them, Google make some class-leading products and services, so replacing them will be difficult. I’m going to start this endeavour with a simple rule that I cannot afford to break:
If it’s not as good as Google, I’m not interested.
Although I don’t want to be “the product”, usability is just as important to me as my privacy. For example, I could go and create an email account within cPanel on a hosting package I have, but in my opinion at least, Roundcube is awful. It’s missing many features and it’s just plain ugly. So any new services I choose need to match, or better, the core features I use in Google’s offerings.
I’m under no illusion that this is going to be a simple task – I think it’s going to be a nightmare, and it may well be expensive too. But I’m going to stick with it and see how I get on.
So, with that in mind, keep an eye out for my next post where I’m going to be making a start a replacing some of the Google products & services that I use on a daily basis.
Have you De-Googled?
Have you managed to cut the Google apron strings? If so, please do tell me about it in the comments below – I think I’m going to need all the help I can get!
You can find links to all posts in this series by clicking here.
Want more?
So you've read this post and you're still not satisfied? Ok then, here's some other stuff for you to do: