Has anyone de-googled (stopped using Google services)? What was your experience?

[MBAir2010]

somehow i de-googled the Dell XPS 13" were Microsoft Maps launches if i need a location, instead of trip advisor. haven't they (powers that be who think they control the world) shut down google already?
then again Google pays these contingencies billions!

 

[0279317]

Where do you shop other than Amazon?

Funny. I admit it has been hard weaning myself off of the convenience of Amazon. But I can get most stuff locally. Otherwise, online from the manufacturer or specialty shops. And, I've come to realize that non Amazon prices are often better.

 

[jeyf]

protonMail have a very private an very generous free mail offer.
they also have thier own iOS email client. A little simplistic but very functional
the protonMail web client is functional as well
excellent moderate cost support for MX record allias

to run protonMail on macOS you will need their free bridge thingy.

medium quality tech & billing support tho

by the way
just the other day
i up graded to expressVPN for all my macOS and iOS devices
the installantion was very easy
$100/15mo

i dont represent any of this junk, do your own research...

 

[digitaldave]

Thanks everyone for the replies, it's been interesting to read about other peoples' experiences. I'm happy with the changes I've made so far (DDG, Apple Maps, FF on Windows), but my main sticking point is the email issue. As mentioned previously, I've looked at something like Proton Mail, possibly with a custom domain, but there's a couple of things making me hesitate:

1) On my iPad and iPhone, I currently use Apple's mail app, as I don't have that many requirements, and it works for what I do. However, if I went with Proton Mail, I'd need to either use the web interface or use their dedicated app. I have to admit I haven't tried it yet, as I haven't needed to because I haven't made the full switch. I think I need to download it and give it a try. I'm less fussed about the desktop side as I usually use the web interface with Gmail anyway (I'd need their Bridge app to use a desktop mail app).

2) I'd love to have a custom domain, but I was thinking about using my family name, but that seems to be taken already with the better top level domains. Also, people often have trouble with spelling my surname anyway, so using it as a domain name would just cause more trouble!

Also, related to (1) above, why is the iCloud email web interface so poor? I guess they expect people to use an app to access it, but still...

 

[MacBH928]

Funny. I admit it has been hard weaning myself off of the convenience of Amazon. But I can get most stuff locally. Otherwise, online from the manufacturer or specialty shops. And, I've come to realize that non Amazon prices are often better.

Interesting, I always thought Amazon was the cheapest price. The free shipping helps. I must look into it.

protonMail have a very private an very generous free mail offer.
they also have thier own iOS email client. A little simplistic but very functional
the protonMail web client is functional as well
excellent moderate cost support for MX record allias

to run protonMail on macOS you will need their free bridge thingy.

medium quality tech & billing support tho

by the way
just the other day
i up graded to expressVPN for all my macOS and iOS devices
the installantion was very easy
$100/15mo

i dont represent any of this junk, do your own research...

$100 for $15 months seems a bit high? I think its $120 for 24months on ProtonMail, I believe it can be cheaper if you buy on black friday and gives you 2 simultaneous connections. Albeit Some servers are slow, its a hit or miss you kind of have to hunt for a speedy server, not sure if this is the case with all VPNs.

Thanks everyone for the replies, it's been interesting to read about other peoples' experiences. I'm happy with the changes I've made so far (DDG, Apple Maps, FF on Windows), but my main sticking point is the email issue. As mentioned previously, I've looked at something like Proton Mail, possibly with a custom domain, but there's a couple of things making me hesitate:

1) On my iPad and iPhone, I currently use Apple's mail app, as I don't have that many requirements, and it works for what I do. However, if I went with Proton Mail, I'd need to either use the web interface or use their dedicated app. I have to admit I haven't tried it yet, as I haven't needed to because I haven't made the full switch. I think I need to download it and give it a try. I'm less fussed about the desktop side as I usually use the web interface with Gmail anyway (I'd need their Bridge app to use a desktop mail app).

2) I'd love to have a custom domain, but I was thinking about using my family name, but that seems to be taken already with the better top level domains. Also, people often have trouble with spelling my surname anyway, so using it as a domain name would just cause more trouble!

Also, related to (1) above, why is the iCloud email web interface so poor? I guess they expect people to use an app to access it, but still...

App is good, you can open an account for free and check it out. You can always upgrade to a paid plan later on.

 

[Starfia]

My own habits:

• I have a Google account and use it when necessary, but I'm only signed in to Google on a dedicated, secondary browser.

• I use YouTube and plan to post more videos there. When I'm watching in everyday fashion, I use it without signing in, removing cookies periodically. When I'm posting a video, I sign in with the aforementioned secondary browser.

• Messages to my Gmail account are forwarded to my (primary) iCloud account. Nowadays, almost no one sends messages to my Gmail account.

• I don't depend on any other Google apps for day-to-day use: I use Pages, Apple Maps, and so on.

I don't think Google is evil or wants to strip away my humanity or anything. Like Apple, Google started as a simple, two-guy company. (And Facebook as a simple, one-guy company, if we want to bring them into it.) For all companies, the years have revealed something of their professed, and actual, values. Apple seems to be the most consciously unrelenting about humanism, decency, common sense and timelessness, and that's much of what's made them successful. I think the others value those things too, but they seem wishy-washier about them, more temptable to rationalizing a different balance with purely corporate interests. Nothing has stopped them so far, but I don't find myself so inclined to participate.

 

[0279317]

Interesting, I always thought Amazon was the cheapest price. The free shipping helps. I must look into it.

Amazon is not always cheaper; sometimes yes, sometimes no. I may end up paying more sometimes. Depending on where you are, shipping is not free, for example, where I am in Europe it is not. It's the one-stop-shopping convenience I'll miss and that's worth something but I'm divorcing Amazon and I hear buying local is a good thing.

 

[jeyf]

$100 for $15 months seems a bit high? I think its $120 for 24months on ProtonMail, I believe it can be cheaper if you buy on black friday and gives you 2 simultaneous connections. Albeit Some servers are slow, its a hit or miss you kind of have to hunt for a speedy server, not sure if this is the case with all VPNs.

-Black Friday is after Thanksgiving, not going to wait that long.

 

[MacBH928]

-Black Friday is after Thanksgiving, not going to wait that long.

that $120 price is the standard price, on Blackfriday its even cheaper just to be clear.

I just checked its $48 per year, and $80 if you buy for 2 years.

 

[piattj]

I tried switching to DuckDuckGo. As much as I hate google’s lack of privacy, they just provide search results that are so much more relevant.


now I’ve stopped using their mail client, I just have all my Gmail messages directed to my iCloud email address. Maybe that makes it harder for them to track me, I’m not sure.

I find Google search results are driven by (i) adverts, rather than pure search results, (ii) what I've been browsing / buying (a testament to Google's ability to turn data into info useful to them and their ad buddies. DDG resuylts may be slightly less comprehensive but are I think better

 

[piattj]

First, apologies if this is not in the right forum, but I looked around and it seemed like it belongs here...

For a little while now, I've been thinking about removing as much Google from my life as I can, partly because I want to reduce the data they collect on me, and partly because I'm liking them less as a company as time goes on. I know they already have a boat load of info, but I want to reduce what they get going forward. So my plan is to remove as much Google stuff from my life as I can. I don't use Chrome as a browser (haven't for some time), I'm using Safari on my Mac, iPhone and iPad, and Firefox on my PC. I've switched search engines to DuckDuckGo, which seems to be going ok so far. Apple Maps instead of Google. The only other things of theirs that I use are YouTube and Gmail. I am looking at a couple of different options for email (possibly just switch to iCloud or maybe something like Protonmail and a custom domain). As for YouTube, I may bite the bullet and keep that and just use my Gmail account for that and nothing else, as I don't want to start a new email account and end up linking it straight back to a Google service.

I'd be interested to hear from others that may have gone down the same route, and what your experiences have been. Are there things I should look out for (pros and cons)? Was it worth it? Please note that I'm not necessarily looking for specific alternatives to Google services (as there's loads of info out there covering that), more experiences, tips and thoughts on the process.

Thanks,

Dave.

I really don't like gmail, from what I've seen of friends & neighbours experiences. A mess

 

[jeyf]

google mail just gives me the creeps. People never delete their emails and have their whole life story on it. Their email account go back 10- 20 years.
for that matter:
they never change their phone#
the credit card# has been the same since that trip over seas
they have been writing checks on the same bank account for years

 

[MacBH928]

google mail just gives me the creeps. People never delete their emails and have their whole life story on it. Their email account go back 10- 20 years.
for that matter:
they never change their phone#
the credit card# has been the same since that trip over seas
they have been writing checks on the same bank account for years

the e-mail accounts are a real gold mine it has everything in detailed black and white text.

 

[lowendlinux]

protonMail have a very private an very generous free mail offer.
they also have thier own iOS email client. A little simplistic but very functional
the protonMail web client is functional as well
excellent moderate cost support for MX record allias

to run protonMail on macOS you will need their free bridge thingy.

medium quality tech & billing support tho

by the way
just the other day
i up graded to expressVPN for all my macOS and iOS devices
the installantion was very easy
$100/15mo

i dont represent any of this junk, do your own research...

I use proton mail as my real email, I also use next cloud as my should storage.

 

[0279317]

I'm still using Youtube but found a strategy to limit google's reach on me by isolating it (as @Starfia mentioned). Google can't track across browsers. So, I use Brave as my main browser but for Youtube I use Firefox (you could use any browser). I don't do anything else on Firefox, just Youtube.

 

[MacBH928]

I'm still using Youtube but found a strategy to limit google's reach on me by isolating it (as @Starfia mentioned). Google can't track across browsers. So, I use Brave as my main browser but for Youtube I use Firefox (you could use any browser). I don't do anything else on Firefox, just Youtube.

There is something called FireFox containers which I encourage you to look at.

 

[tranceking26]

So I've decided to test out DuckDuckGo on my devices and so far it has been pretty good.

Seems to have gotten better since I last tried it out.

 

[MacBH928]

So I've decided to test out DuckDuckGo on my devices and so far it has been pretty good.

Seems to have gotten better since I last tried it out.

DDG is good for the obvious and general , like if you want to get to a company website or lookup a topic. But when you want something specific, like the coffee place in Leicester, England you will have trouble.

Note that DDG greatest feature is using bangs. Don't go without it.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Yeah. Just for like three specific websites bangs are very nice. Although on the phone, I just have them as custom search engines in Firefox.

 

[usagora]

I've never quite understood this mentality. I've been using Google products for many, many years and no evil has befallen me yet. You can also control a lot under Account > Data & Personalization on your Google account. Like people that want to boycott a business because one of their board members said or did such and such, if you want to be consistent, you're going to find yourself in the wilderness growing your own food, making your own soap, and off the grid, because if you look hard enough, you'll find something "bad" in just about every company. Good luck.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Gmail is simply too good for me to give up. And syncing my contacts and calendar is rock solid reliable. I simply don't care if they somewhat snoop on me for advertisement purposes. I rather deal with that then finding an alternative paid service with less functionality and reliability.

I barely use Google maps for navigation anymore, but I use Waze which is Google owned. And Waze is irreplaceable for avoiding speed cams in my city.

 

[MacBH928]

I've never quite understood this mentality. I've been using Google products for many, many years and no evil has befallen me yet. You can also control a lot under Account > Data & Personalization on your Google account. Like people that want to boycott a business because one of their board members said or did such and such, if you want to be consistent, you're going to find yourself in the wilderness growing your own food, making your own soap, and off the grid, because if you look hard enough, you'll find something "bad" in just about every company. Good luck.

Thats ok, you can make your own choices. Some people might choose to get a free housing as long as the owner can keep a 24/7 camera recording them in every room and selling the videos to the public.

 

[jeyf]

my take:
having a google email address looks unporfessional.

... I've been using Google products for many, many years and no evil has befallen me yet... Good luck.

well ther it be:
and the point is:
after all these years things have changed for Google Inc. and not for the betters
there is a downward path tech companies follow into the dirt as they grow old.

 

[usagora]

Thats ok, you can make your own choices. Some people might choose to get a free housing as long as the owner can keep a 24/7 camera recording them in every room and selling the videos to the public.

Not even close to a good analogy, LOL! It would be more like the landlord gathers detailed analytics of how you use the house (water/electric usage, number of parties you have, etc.) and sells that info to third-parties. They're not going to see a video of you naked in the shower or getting it on in the bedroom 🤣

 

[usagora]

well ther it be:
and the point is:
after all these years things have changed for Google Inc. and not for the betters
there is a downward path tech companies follow into the dirt as they grow old.

Ok, I'll let you know when something terrible happens. Don't hold your breath, though.