DeGooglization

[Zundfolge]

Not sure this is the right sub forum for this ... if not, the mods can move it.


I was thinking now would be a good time to start a discussion on the ways we can get Google out of our lives ... Google is evil and the sooner we can stop using their "services" the better.

There are several aspects of Google in our lives we should all be finding replacements for.


Email
Search Engine
Video Service
Social Media
Web Browser


I thought I'd start the discussion out with alternatives to the Google Search Engine (the toughest one is going to be email for sure and video service is really more up to creators and not users to decide on).

So I've been using Duck Duck Go (https://duckduckgo.com/) for quite a while and while it works ok (especially when searching "controversial" subjects that Google is actively skewing/suppressing) I still wonder if I can't do better. So lately I've been playing with Qwant (https://www.qwant.com/) because, well frankly its prettier.

Was wondering what people's experiences with these two search engines (and others) has been.

[GilpinGuy]

I've "Ducked it" many times myself and feel the same way as you.

[CS1983]

Search:
startpage.com is the default search engine for firefox in Linux Mint 18.2

It seems to essentially mimic Google's results, though not always. It's also a proxy based engine, so if you want to link any pics you find it can be a pain since the url is obscured by the proxy. I often have to use Dogpile (yes, it still exists!) at work, because our filtering software will often peg Google results and not let me get to such dangerous things as Microsoft's KB pages.

Email? I don't know why people don't just pay for a domain name, at least for professional purposes, or buy an email account elsewhere. I never put my personal email on anything professional. If I was going to move away from a "free" email, I'd register an innocuous domain name, do the private fee, and make a "professional" sounding email and then personal would be something different. I'd then charge $1 to friends to have their email hosted there. If HR ever pulled their, "We found liberalsuck@domain.com saying some things on a website and he lives in Colorado Springs according to his profile... and you have name@domain.com; do you know anything about that?" I'd pull the old, "domain.com is an email hosting service which is a local business. I cannot control their other clients." and just Jesuitically weave from that punch by HR.

Video:

Dailymotion.com is a potential... results suck and are often weird.

Here's a list of alternatives:
https://www.thetoptens.com/best-alternatives-youtube/

Social Media:

Don't use it really. I have a few burner accounts for looking up things/people. LinkedIn is the only "production" Social Media I have.

----

I'm planning my iPhone escape now. It will necessitate buying an actual digital camera since I'm going to go with a cricket brick phone. Email will not be viewed or answered unless I'm at a computer. Videos will be unwatched. Texts will be short and to the point because I'll have to click 3x as much to get a letter I want. It's going to be 1999 levels of awesome.

[hurley842002]

I'm planning my iPhone escape now. It will necessitate buying an actual digital camera since I'm going to go with a cricket brick phone. Email will not be viewed or answered unless I'm at a computer. Videos will be unwatched. Texts will be short and to the point because I'll have to click 3x as much to get a letter I want. It's going to be 1999 levels of awesome.

Lame, but to each their own.


Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Zundfolge]

Email? I don't know why people don't just pay for a domain name, at least for professional purposes, or buy an email account elsewhere.

Two reasons. 1 its not free and 2. unless you're paying for top tier hosting, you can expect your emails to be rejected by large numbers of people (particularly corporate recipients) because nobody trusts email anymore and the anti-spam countermeasures have made using email a big pain. Even at work I occasionally have to send people their proofs or what-not via the company's Gmail account because the security and anti-spam countermeasures set up on their email server dump mail from our domain (and this is using GoDaddy as a host, which is less likely to be rejected ... my wife uses some cheap off-name hosting service and about a quarter of the people she tries to email with it reject her email).

As for moving email service, I'm considering ProtonMail (https://protonmail.com/) as it's encrypted and they have a free option (although the pay one is only 48.00 € /Year)

Oh and I forgot to mention web browsers (as Chrome is Google and Mozilla is just about as bad as Google). I've been experimenting with Brave (https://www.brave.com/) and am just about to make it my default (wish they'd hurry up with some extension support). Its lean, mean, fast and started by Brenden Eich.

[mtnrider]

Some are easy to avoid (search engine). Others are pretty much impossible unless you completely cut the cord. Biggest one is Android devices. They pretty much are useless with out a google account (same goes for apple and Iphone).

Honestly there is no way to avoid being tracked, profiled, etc unless you avoid the internet completely.

.

[DFBrews]

Reading this thread via carrier pigeon currently

[Zundfolge]

Reading this thread via carrier pigeon currently

How do you keep 'em from crapping on the keyboard?

[Honey Badger282.8]

I've tried dropping google before, email is easy but search engine is tough as there is a large gap in quality from google to everything else. With Google owning YouTube there isn't a legitimate competitor for that either. I will never use anything Android but I'm stuck with YouTube and Google search.

[CS1983]

Lame, but to each their own.


Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

My goal is to be a personal Luddite as much as possible, while maintaining proficiency for work.

[DFBrews]

How do you keep 'em from crapping on the keyboard?
Touchscreen pigeon crap is non conductive

[Ah Pook]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL-9mECyZAA" target="_blank">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL-9mECyZAA
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL-9mECyZAA)
Been looking for a useful search engine. None of the above work for me.

Google was useful until they went mainstream. Nada since then.

[CS1983]

Two reasons. 1 its not free and 2. unless you're paying for top tier hosting, you can expect your emails to be rejected by large numbers of people (particularly corporate recipients) because nobody trusts email anymore and the anti-spam countermeasures have made using email a big pain. Even at work I occasionally have to send people their proofs or what-not via the company's Gmail account because the security and anti-spam countermeasures set up on their email server dump mail from our domain (and this is using GoDaddy as a host, which is less likely to be rejected ... my wife uses some cheap off-name hosting service and about a quarter of the people she tries to email with it reject her email).

As for moving email service, I'm considering ProtonMail (https://protonmail.com/) as it's encrypted and they have a free option (although the pay one is only 48.00 € /Year)

Oh and I forgot to mention web browsers (as Chrome is Google and Mozilla is just about as bad as Google). I've been experimenting with Brave (https://www.brave.com/) and am just about to make it my default (wish they'd hurry up with some extension support). Its lean, mean, fast and started by Brenden Eich.

If it's free, it's most likely that you're the product, not the email service.

I haven't had issues so far w/ my domain. Could it be lack of a trust relationship, i.e., first email = attachments or link(s)? Unsure.

Spam filters are weird. Every once in a while my work email quarantines .gov emails... we're DOD. Go figure.

[BladesNBarrels]

Spam filters are weird. Every once in a while my work email quarantines .gov emails... we're DOD. Go figure.

Oh, there are so many responses to this!

[CS1983]

Oh, there are so many responses to this!

I'm always interested in learning new info. One man's experience can be totally different from another man's. Feel free to share!

[BladesNBarrels]

Being facetious thinking of humorous responses to the DOD being blocked from viewing emails from the government!

[Beer]

[CS1983]

Being facetious thinking of humorous responses to the DOD being blocked from viewing emails from the government!

[Beer]

What's really fun is when DISA sets up a mail.mil address for someone and then their agency mail gets routed to that, and they have no way to check it. And DISA refuses to delete the account because reasons. And won't do an SMTP alias. And Jimmy the contractor is hosed.

[mb504]

Maybe the first place to start is here on AR-15.CO?

Every page here loads scripts from google, via the ajax.googleapis.com libraries.

So even here, google can probably track your every click, page load, form submission, and search.

[sampson]

Maybe the first place to start is here on AR-15.CO?

Every page here loads scripts from google, via the ajax.googleapis.com libraries.

So even here, google can probably track your every click, page load, form submission, and search.

Darn. I always thought of ar15-co as my safespace[emoji6]

Not being on Facebook Is not enough.

Just looking into this. Ran into this video about IPFS. Sounds interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pqBQuYYBWY&spfreload=10

[asmo]

To be clear as people seem to want stuff on the internet for 'free' (e.g. gmail, search, etc.). If you are *NOT* paying for the product - then *YOU* are the product.

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

If you are *NOT* paying for the product - then *YOU* are the product.

I'm not convinced this is so problematic for me personally. The targeted ads are so good as to be creepy.
That said, I'm pretty sure most are bots and program driven, not an actual person doing the spying.

So, if I find what I want conveniently, while Google knows what product I want to buy, well... [Dunno]

The fact that bots are writing algorithms to watch me anonymously somehow bothers me less than being watched in person.

[OtterbatHellcat]

Google and other crap IS/ARE watching everything we do I think. Yeah it pisses me off, but I can't do anything about it and I'm gonna keep using the internet.

I don't know why the world got the way it has, or where it's going... my or anyone's approval or not. It might be important to be ABLE to say that I knew life without internet or cable TV or these damn phones everyone has, including myself.