Ancestors

Written by Alistair Davidson on 2025-01-21 at 14:52

It's going to be Very Very bad when Google fully flips to the right, and I am not aware of a mainetream-ready way to escape Google.

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Written by eifer on 2025-01-21 at 15:08

@moh_kohn I was thinking about that too. Like it’s one thing if meta goes openly right wing, because we don’t really need to use their apps. But Google? Way too much is dependent on Google. Search, email, YouTube etc. I guess we don’t need to use their apps either but it’s a lot harder not to.

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Toot

Written by Alison Wilder on 2025-01-21 at 15:12

@eifer @moh_kohn It's harder, but it's doable. You can start now by switching your email literally anywhere else. And Google search is demonstrably worse than most other search engines at this point, so that one shouldn't be too hard.

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Descendants

Written by eifer on 2025-01-21 at 15:18

@moh_kohn @alisynthesis yeah I haven’t used Google search for a long time but my gmail account is basically my identity at this point. That is my email on virtually every service I use. And there’s no alternative to YouTube. It’s going to be a big ask to have people de-Google their lives.

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Written by Alison Wilder on 2025-01-21 at 15:20

@eifer @moh_kohn I know how much it feels like that's true, but quitting Google is really not that big a deal. I know because I felt that way too before I just did it, and afterwards I realized that my life wasn't different or worse. Some things were a little less convenient, and it took a little time to do it, but it wasn't so bad.

I do still watch YouTube sometimes, so there's that.

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Written by Alison Wilder on 2025-01-21 at 15:23

@eifer @moh_kohn One concrete step you can take is to get a new email account, preferably one that uses your own domain name so you can switch services anytime, and leave your Gmail as it is. Forward everything to your new email address, and don't leave a copy on Google servers.

Then, you have time to slowly switch over at your own pace. My Google account is technically still alive, but I don't use it for anything that matters to me anymore. They're welcome to have all the cruft data they want

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Written by Alison Wilder on 2025-01-21 at 15:25

@eifer @moh_kohn I was also so concerned about losing access to my old emails, but ask me how many times I have logged in to my Gmail account to find something old. Actually, don't ask me, the answer is one time.

Not saying this would be everyone's experience, but I would encourage you to try to find a way that works for you. These companies keep their power by making it feel so inconvenient to change that we all just acquiesce. But the truth is, it's really not that inconvenient.

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Written by econads on 2025-01-21 at 17:27

@alisynthesis @eifer @moh_kohn

I use addy.io, but there are similar services, to alias my email so I have a different address for each service and never put my real email online. It also means I can turn off an email if I start getting spam too, and I know exactly which service sold it. I also use quakr for my phone, but that's not quite as convenient.

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Written by Alison Wilder on 2025-01-21 at 18:18

@econads @eifer @moh_kohn I've heard that's a great service.

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