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106 lines
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106 lines
6.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Moving Away From Google
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date: 2017-11-23
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---
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#### I'm starting to move outside the comfort bubble
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If you've kept up with me on Twitter, you'll know what
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a huge fan of Google I am -- I have a Google Pixel XL (1st generation),
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a Google Wifi mesh network, a Google Home, and rely on Google services
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for a huge amount of work I do, including Google Drive/Docs, Gmail,
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Maps, Keep, and up until yesterday, Play Music.
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But I'm starting to get tired of Google's products for a very simple and
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maybe even petty reason. *Their design is the least consistent thing
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ever.* I get it, Google is a huge company with tons of teams working on
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different things, but I find it hard to keep using their services when
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the interface for products is just straight up terrible compared to
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competition. Recently I switched away from using Google Play Music in
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favour of Spotify, which I had previously been using, and like the
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interface a lot more, as it's very consistent and not the garish orange
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of GPM. Despite being material design, the interface feels clunky and
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ugly compared to the refinement of Spotify, most likely in part due to
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work on the iOS app. Plus, it has a pretty great desktop app (albeit an
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Electron app, but I digress). All of the Drive apps (Docs, Sheets,
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Slides, etc) have a very clean and well designed look, but switching to
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the web version of Gmail is jarring, and the mobile app is simplistic at
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best -- it get's the job done at the very least. Not to mention I've
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found refreshing very slow compared to my own mail server I run for [Git
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Galaxy](https://gitgalaxy.com), which
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feels odd because logically Gmail should be faster, if not on par,
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considering Google's massive architecture. Hangouts is a beautifully
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designed experience, but it's become a very obvious second class citizen
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of Google's arsenal, thanks in part to Duo and Allo (we'll get to second
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class citizens in Google's world in a minute). It also does not support
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Firefox at all, even the latest beta version 58 (which is my daily
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driver), which requires me to keep Google Chrome installed -- clever
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move.
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Let's switch gears away from UI/UX experience and talk about apps that
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Google seems to have forgotten or lost interest in. While I am aware
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some of these apps may have an active development team, they don't seem
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to be priority for Google as a whole, and this can lead to frustrations,
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such as the example above -- Hangouts does not support Firefox, even
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the beta 58 I currently run. I recognize Firefox Quantum just recently
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launched, but they had betas and nightlies available leading up to the
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release, so I don't believe there is any excuse for Hangout to not work
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outside of Chrome (I have not tested Edge). Also on topic of messaging
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apps from Google, they also offer Duo and Allo, two apps that
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essentially split the functionality of Hangouts in two. While some of
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the Android community was very vocal about this, and a large number of
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Hangouts users worried they were going to have to move, these feelings
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seem to have pettered out, although it does still seem possible for
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Google to pull the plug and force everyone over to their new offerings.
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The feeling of being second rate extends to Gmail as well, at least to a
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certain extent. Google is in no rush no to shut down their email
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service, as it's very valuable for keeping consumers locked in to their
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ecosysem and also provides them with a metric ton of data that they can
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sift through and utilize for advertising, [although recently they've
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claimed they will no longer do this](http://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-reading-personal-emails-privacy). That said, we don't neccesarily know if Google is
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still reading our emails and doing something else with the data. Which
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leads nicely into the next topic.
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Security and privacy is something Google values greately, but it seems
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it's moreso to gain the trust of the consumer than to keep their own
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noses out of your data. Let's face it, Google is an advertising company,
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and little else. Everything they do is to expose people to more
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advertisements and maximize engagement to attract more advertisers.
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Their reach is incredible, especially considering AdSense and Analytics.
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With these two platforms in their arsenal, they have an almost infinite
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reach across the internet, living and collecting data on millions of
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websites that implement these services. The recent "Adpocalypse" on
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YouTube seems to be a case of runaway algorithms attempting to optimize
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YouTube for advertisers, or at least that's what most theorize. And
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frankly, it's not neccesarily a bad thing, but consumers need to
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recognize that Google is watching, and doesn't neccesarily have the end
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user in mind when it comes to accomplishing their goals.
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So in summary -- Why am I slowly moving away from Google?
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Their apps are inconsistant, which is to be expected in such a huge
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company with so many teams working on different things. Projects that
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aren't the forefront of Google's priorities suffer heavily, especially
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in an age where "the web" is accelerating very quickly and design is
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being refined constantly. Also, Google is an advertising company, at
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their core. It's how they earn the majority of their revenue, and
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despite ad blockers, it will continue to be. This isn't a problem on
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it's own, and I actually used to embrace the feeling of contributing so
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much data to Google, but the honeymoon period has worn off now, and I
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feel like I should cut back -- after all, millions of other people are
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contributing just as much data, so Google won't notice if they suddenly
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loose one. I run Firefox Nightly on my phone instead of Chrome, and am
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actively looking for alternatives to many of their other services,
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notably Gmail and Google Docs.
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> Google does a bit of everything okay, but sometimes it's better to pay
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> a bit for a much more specific service that does one thing incredibly
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> well.
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The final nail in the coffin for Google Play Music, if you were
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wondering, was the fact that YouTube Red is not available in Canada yet,
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which infuriates me and requires the use of a VPN. This coupled with the
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fact Google Play Music has a fairly limited catalogue compared to
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Spotify makes it difficult to recommend. If you can get YouTube Red with
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it, however, the price is worth it.
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