Karine Sabatier

Google-free… I’m on my way

More and more people are starting to realize how dangerous it is to trust one powerful company with all your data. We’re speaking of Google of course, but it could be any company running actually on several monopoles, like they do.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, maybe these links are a good start
Un mois sans Google… c’est fini (french)
[Bilan] Sources de revenus de Google (french)
Google AdWords influe sur le référencement naturel ? (french)
25 trucs que Google connaît sur vous (french)
Things Google knows about you (english)
Should You Trust Google with Your Audience Data? (english)

It’s not that my data is SO important to the rest of the world that it has to be kept private. It’s just that it’s MY data and I don’t like feeling vulnerable.
Think of it this way : if I ever am deprived of my Google account access, can my work / my company survive?

So for the past weeks I’ve tried to find Google alternatives and get used to them. I had already found a good alternative to gmail with Zoho and Fastmail (transition was quite easy because I never really liked the gmail interface anyway). For google docs Zoho provides a nice and painless import. And I don’t use shared docs that much, only for unimportant data. I use Open Office for the rest.

I’ve never used any of these Google powered apps : Picasa, Blogger, Google Desktop, Google calendar, Adsense, Health, Checkout, Answers, Adwords.
I don’t use Chrome, I use Firefox 95% of the time and the latest version of Opera. I use Flock to browse Flickr while I photo-surf.
I rarely go to Youtube, I prefer Vimeo, it’s authentic, creative and hi-res.

That leaves me with Google Search, Google Analytics, Google Maps, and Google Reader. I’m still looking for quality equivalent solutions.

Zen habits gave me some clues in this article: How I Became (Mostly) Google-free in About a Day. Scroogle is indeed a good replacement, coupled with Ixquick it works just fine. I haven’t had the time yet to test clutsy but I will.

The hardest thing to replace is probably Analytics (I’m only a very occasional Maps and Reader user). Analytics is so simple to use and offers so many options that it’s going to be hard to find an equivalent. Any hints welcome :)

Tags: don't be evil, google, trust