Seven Years Without Google

2020-02-07

Seven years ago, I gave up Google, and while my focus was leaving Google, I also think it is worth your while to stay diversified. Try unrelated services, look for privacy and host it yourself if you are able. At the time of writing, I currently recommend the following services and software.

• Tiny Tiny RSS - My feed reader, I have used this software since 2013.
• ProtonMail - My email provider since it's release. Fun story, I was a customer of Lavabit, and so was Ed Snowden. Lavabit was taken down, and I moved to Protonmail.
• Syncthing - Decentralized storage, synchronize files between two or more computers. I also used Ubuntu One cloud storage, which shut down, and Spider Oak which worked very well. I have been using Syncthing for a couple of years. Software is open-source, accessible, and available on GitHub.
• Firefox - A fantastic browser; I dumped Chrome in 2013 and see no reason anyone would use Chrome. I occasionally use Safari, which has excellent privacy features that make fingerprinting more difficult.
• DuckDuckGo - This search engine has improved since 2013. I used a handful of others through the years, but our household default is now DuckDuckgo.
• Keybase - Secure groups, files and chat.

These are just some of the software and services I used to become free of Google. DeGoogle has many alternatives for search, email, cloud storage, and more. Part of being Google free is keeping their hardware out of your life. I have Linux, FreeBSD, and Apple devices and a single Windows computer only used for gaming.