In 2019 I will be fully divorcing myself from google. This repo will track my decisions and any coding required to facilitate them.
Google has increasingly positioned itself against many of what I believe to be core ideas that keep the internet what it is. Recently this can be seen in the following actions:
- Renewed interest in operating in China (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google#China)
- Auto Sign-In when using google websites/products in Chrome (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17942252)
- Increased Presence of Google Curated "cards" over search results
- Increased necessity of Google Play Services on Android
- URL Obfuscation and push towards AMP/google run caching/publishing technology
- AMP For Email (https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/26/google-makes-emails-more-dynamic-with-amp-for-email/)
These are some of my main reasons, I know there are others out there who feel strongly about other issues not mentioned here. After all of these moves I have come to the conclusion that Google is not looking out for the web, but rather the web it envisions.
I am not comfortable with that idea. The internet as we know it may have some downsides in terms of user protection, privacy, and control, however I don't believe a walled garden is the correct solution to those problems.
Currently a lot of my life involves Google. While deciding to start this project I began taking stock of all of the Google products I used.
- Gmail (Email)
- Youtube (Videos)
- Google Play Music (Music Storage)
- Project Fi (Phone Service)
- Android OS (Phone Operating System - Reliant on Google Play Services)
- Photos (Auto-upload from Phone, and long term storage)
- Travel Computer (Chromebook)
- Maps (Navigation)
Due to some previous drama surrounding google search, ads and browsing I have already given up the following.
- Search (DuckDuckGo)
- Browser (Brave - Chromium Based)
- Email (Fastmail): Synced all email from Gmail and went through and migrated/deleted emails since 2008! Now using fastmail as my main email account and going through the process of switching all references until the gmail account is not receiving any email.
- Maps (MapQuest): Switched to MapQuest for GPS usages and online directions
- Phone Service (T-Mobile): Switched to T-Mobile, terrible coverage but it's cheap.
- Gmail (https://blog.dipasquale.fr/en/2018/12/02/leave-gmail-in-10-steps/)
- General List (https://nomoregoogle.com)