The end of the Googleverse
The last 25 years of Google’s history can be boiled down to a battle against the Google bomb. Is the search engine finally losing to its hijackers?
Google just canceled the pixel pass service and it was the last straw for me. I had already moved email to proton but now Ive completed the calendar shift, search to ddg, and drive to something else. My Google speakers barely understand anything anymore and I'm just sick of investing in an eco system that may or may not be there in a year.
All that is off topic to the article which is nostalgic about Google reader and search without ads, but the topic is part of a larger problem. I used to feel that using Google was a project of humans categorizing information, building something amazing and now it feels like I'm shopping at Walmart when i use their products. The type of feeling I can only describe as "I need this thing now so I'm here, let's get in and out as quick as possible before I spend more money or become annoyed with the environment".
This isn't to just shit on Google, but the point is I used to feel as I was a part of something bigger, humans creating a way to access the world's information accurately and easily and now it's much more complicated and that feeling is gone.
Maybe it's all in my head.
It’s not just in your head.
I also degoogled some time back when it really occurred to me how much data they had on me. That’s not good for anyone but Google. And there are great alternatives for most things.
Also their inconsistency with their services (abandoning projects they initially promote heavily) just feels insecure and annoying.
I still use their search engine though, the alternatives aren’t there yet. But I use it less and less because it’s so riddled with affiliate sites. And I do use Youtube, it is the best streaming service despite its own set of problems.
I'm probably from a younger generation, because as long as I have been around google has never felt like a choice for me. Instead, it was always the default or mandated by the organization I am a part of (university, other web services...). It's kinda a fight to get out of the google grasp.
Hearing you (and I guess the article towards the end) talk about google as not a monstrosity gives me hope that maybe other companies can push through and usurp google's "defaultness". It'd also be great if it was not another giant like microsoft giving competition.
I'd love to be able to a make a non-google choice and not feel like an outsider.
Yeah. I hate how stuck in I am in the google system. I've been migrating away too and ensuring whatever system I use next doesn't tie me in or make it a pain to leave.
I'm struggling with a google photos alternative though. I'm currently just ignoring the problem and periodically using google takeout to make sure I have a local copy of all the photos.
The issue I have is my GF and parents are on my family account. So I use about 50GB of google photos and they use about 100GB combined. And I pay for the 200GB tier.
We're all stuck now and you just need to pay indefinitely.
Spot on. And as a result I have moved as much as possible away from Google myself. Email, Drive, Photos, Search etc. I'm happy
I mean the article is specifically about Google search. Which might have gone downhill since whenever it first came out with the introduction of ads (sorry, 'Sponsored Results') but I'm not seeing significantly better competition for delivering search results. Everyone is still just aping the brand leader.
DuckDuckGo is obviously better for privacy for example but it doesn't seem to have any ambition except to deliver the same results as Google but without the ads and tracking which is ok but not a big enough draw except for people already concerned about privacy. Bing gets essentially the same results but if anything seems more spammy than Google with pop ups about making it or edge your default search engine or browser. It feels like other search engines just take Google search as something to copy and put their spin on it though.
I'd say search is one of the things Google is still getting right enough to earn its place as the leader. Some things it does well, some things it has badly declined on (someone above mentioned Google assistant hardly understanding anything anymore, when it used to be the best in this area too), but generally you can replace most Google things with programmes doing things their own way. Search engines just feel a bit like reskins to me
DuckDuckGo is obviously better for privacy for example but it doesn't seem to have any ambition except to deliver the same results as Google but without the ads
I don't think duckduckgo has ANY control over improving the search results. Except maybe switching to a different engine.
Pretty much. The reason Google's search results were so good was because of the information they had on you and on other users who made similar searches. I'm not advocating for DDG to start tracking users, though. But it'll be hard for them to have a "Google-like" search experience (single search bar with no other parameters) without that kind of data.
Kagi is better than all the others combined. Yes you have to pay for it. If you spend any time on the Internet day-to-day then it's worth it.
Kagi is pretty great. But I haven't used Google Search in a few years, so I can't properly judge.
Honestly Bing has outperformed Google for me lately to the point where I might set as default on some browsers.
I switched full time to bing last month and have so far not missed google at all.
I’d rather not just go to another mega corp, but the rest that I tried out just didn’t get the results I was looking for.
Brave search uses a different index, so I like searching it first since it will give me significantly different results
Ddg is driving me crazy with correcting what i type to give more generalized results. Searx is my new favorite. It's not just a google reskin.
Just use multiple search engines. The less of a monopoly there is, the better.
The first step is to install docker
I appreciate the effort, but I'm a normie, so nah ...
Your on Lemmy not a normie.
You can always use one of the publicly hosted instances.
I would personally recommend having your own. Since then you don't have to trust another party, and can customize it to your needs.
Saving this to try later. Thanks!
You're welcome!
I wrote a second part on how to add custom filters and redirects (to filter out SEO junk).
This has been my solution as well. Searx by default, ddg when necessary, wiby for fun, resulthunter as a backup, google when all else fails.
Anyone have some good solutions for replacing gmail?
I switched to Proton for email, cloud, and VPN.
Another vote for protonmail. It's honestly not as good as gmail, but it works well enough for what I need.
Exchange online.
Forgive my ignorance if this is wrong, but Exchange is just Microsoft right? I’d rather not migrate away from Google into another Google.
It doesn't have to be some privacy focused security super encrypted email service if that doesn't fit your use case. Use outlook.com, fastmail, proton, try one out for just shopping accounts that you check for orders and shipping etc. I get that we should have privacy and outlook isn't any better than gmail but I'm just not an all or nothing kinda person. If you're cool with what it offers and what it takes, then try it out.
Note that I use proton, paid member for 4 years and going. Happy with service. My point is that you need to pick the right tool for the job.
My choices are more about not having everything on Google (or being let down yet again) than my fear of google knowing I emailed my accountant two months ago or that I bought a dog poop scooper from Amazon.
Just like others have said I do really enjoy Proton. They have some good stuff, and it's not full of ads. I pay for the lowest tier to get some extra addresses, and it's been reliable for half a decade now.
I’ve been using Kagi. It works well. I like it. Costs money, but that’s a positive in my book.
I recently switched to Kagi and the difference is astounding. I knew it was bad but it’s just crazy, especially on mobile. The ability to personally change a domains ranking in your search results is a game changer too, now my results aren’t polluted with Amazon results as an example.