I think this is a little silly because a lot of the fruits from the google-tree have already been reaped by the author.<p>Its not particularly hard to live google-free <i>now</i>, now that you know all of the places you want to go on the internet and have many good Google-alternatives.<p>Because you're already aware of wikipedia, and allrecipes, and reddit, and BBC news, etc, etc.<p>All of the fine websites you enjoy however were almost all once learned about from Google Search or else someone who used search.<p>Had you not had any contact with Google Search or the people who used it in the first place from 2001-2011, you'd probably still think the internet is a trite place where there's not much to learn.<p>And presumably if you stopped using Google Search now and there were no good search alternatives, you'd miss out on a lot of good sites that will be developed between 2011 and 2020.<p>Luckily for the author, search is a booming field today. It's true that Google isn't any better than the other options available <i>today</i>, but when you were doing most of your fledgling searching for good content sites back in (say) '02-'06, it was there and you benefited massively.<p>In this way I kind of think the article is essentially saying "It is easy to live without parents once you're already an adult." Trivially true, but greatly mis-understanding of the importance that his search-parents had on him.
For me it goes like this:<p>-I don't like the fact that my services are so scattered out among different companies.<p>-I start moving stuff to 1 service.<p>-I get intensely excited about the integration.<p>-I get paranoid about Mogul Company X having all my data.<p>-I move parts of it away.<p>-Repeat.<p>[slight exaggeration]
Why would I want to live "Google free"?<p>Compared to other companies who collect similar amounts of data, G has (as of yet) behaved quite well.<p>If I don't want AdWords or Analytics tracking, I can redirect their domains to 127.0.0.1 (which I do for Analytics).
It's amazing how things have changed about Google. I still remember the day when Google released GMail, and the /. crowd were talking about how Google wanted and needed to make its product(s) more sticky since switching search engine was considered to be painless and that would put Google in a very vulnerable position. Now Google has grown to be so sticky that people start writing about how to live without it.<p>I am not fond of many things Google is doing, but have to admit it has come a long way in the past 7 years.
Instead of replacing Google services with other online services, I would prefer an approach that replaces them with free (as in speech) software I can install on my web own server.<p>I don't think Google is evil. But I would like more control over the information they currently caretake for me.
The work of the Data Liberation Front team is one of the big reasons I'm willing to use Google services in the first place.<p>I appreciate not having my data held hostage. Google isn't perfect but the DLF team represents an effort to continue to improve, and they appear to make good progress.
Anybody else tempted to operate their own "cloud"?<p>I'm waiting for OS X Lion Server to be released to install it on my home server (really just a mac Mini running 24/7 next to my router).
Since most of my sharing (calendar, docs...) is between my wife and myself, it seems doable.<p>I'm just not sure that iCal, Mail and the file sharing features will be adequate enough to replace Gmail, Google Calendar and Docs.
I could probably switch to DuckDuckGo without much trouble. I could definitely switch to a newsreader, although I'd miss syncing. Still, might be some other service that does it or it's even possible to hack something together myself.<p>But Gmail? That's the tough one, I really like the interface and it seems <i>every</i> competitor tries to look like a desktop client.<p>Having a hosted Emacs might be an option (RSS reader/highly customized GNUS). My paranoia/principle level isn't high enough for that right now, though.
It's become more and more important for me personally to be google free over the last couple years, and I largely am, but DuckDuckGo only gets me about 80% on getting free of relying on their search, which is my main paranoiac worry.<p>The problem with getting off of Google search is that it is such an <i>excellent</i> product. When I want to dig hard, I can't help but go back.
I'm using several different google user accounts for different services. This feels safer, and allow easier separation of work and personal stuff.<p>About search engine replacement: DuckDuckGo is nice, but unfortunately works only in a strict english-speaking setup. For any search in a non-english languages, its performance lacks dramatically compared to google.
Exporting Tasks might be easier now, as Google has recently announced an API for Google Tasks. I haven't looked into it, though.<p>Would there be a market for a Tasks exporter? I'd enjoy throwing one together, but I suppose there isn't real demand... :-/ (If you need one, you could pay me in BitCoin).
I really dont get why OP is so scared about eliminating the presence of all google services? Some services might be bad agreed,but why ditch everything? sounds paranoid to me. Replace chrome with firefox. whats the point?