this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2024
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If you use anything Google, you are the product. This has been pretty obvious since the early 2000's, yet people dive right into all the crap they release.
Counterpoint: so what? I'm not going to start paying for a search engine, or maps, or the dozen other Google services. Yeah, if I search for a lawn mower I will see lawn mower ads everywhere... and that's actually better than seeing dishwasher ads or dating site ads.
I use Google since the beginning, and the o ly thing that would make me stop is if the quality of the product goes down (like the recent AI summaries that apparently they show in the US).
Agreed, people always forget that Google is a company or to make money, they don't provide all of these services out of the kindness of their hearts.
Actually if everyone paid for software instead it would be very cheap. Maybe like $1. Think about it, it only takes a tiny fraction of the people that use free open source alternatives to make a donation to keep those products going. I use all the alternatives to google. The only google product I use is YouTube. And I find alternatives VERY affordable and voluntary donations mostly. Take for example Microsoft Word and Excel, I switched to LibreOffice 6 years ago. It's 100% as good. We are here on Lemmy instead of Reddit. And Firefox is every bit as good as chrome. I get it that once your are in the google system it's hard to get out, and is a lot of learning and work to move over, but daym it feels good once the only google you use is YouTube. Supporting a load of little projects instead of the mighty google feels good also. The alternatives have come a long way. I made I list of alternatives and as a project switched over one by one. I have never looked back and don't miss all the google demands for phone numbers etc. I am now in control instead of google.
I use Firefox (and chromium and even chrome at work) and lemmy, but nothing comes close to Google search, maps and YouTube content. I tried ddg and openstreet maps, not even close. Partially because of crowd sourced, privacy invading features like location tracking for traffic info. I even pay for YouTube premium, easily the cheapest entertainment around. The ads in the free version is crap because how disruptive they are, and I prefer to pay the creators than use an ad blocker (although new pipe is on my phone and yt-dlg on my computer for videos I really like and want to preserve).
For email Google has features that other clients just don't, even tho I ran my own server, DNS domain with dkim, etc, I still prefer Gmail for 90% of my emails. Only friends and family get my non-gmail account. Spam filter, calendar integration, mobile Client, threads, consistency, customization...
Same for office. While I do have Libre office installed (and Next Cloud on my server) I mostly use Google Docs. I never know who I will need to share a document with, or open on mobile or somewhere else, Google docs just works.
I also loved Google Reader and used Google domains, but I don't want to talk about that :D
Wow you use a lot of tech! Good share, thanks. I'm with you with Google maps, however check out "Organic Maps" I was very impressed with it (here in the UK) it finds shops and businesses, but no reviews obviously. I still use Google maps most of the time (on a separate phone that lives in the car), but Organic is really impressive, way ahead of the other map apps, definitely one to watch. Paying for YouTube is a great idea. I may do that also actually. I run a server with Mail-in-a-box for email. Yes it is just email basically, but I personally do not need or use more than that. And I love having unlimited aliases that all point to my main email. Also NextCloud is amazing yes. I love NextCloud. The other services you use I just don't have a need for. But yes google = convenience. I bet there are good alternatives to document sharing. And I use Hover.com for domains.