This is not by any means a new idea. A quick search around the web will return many results of people doing this. My reasons are likely similar to many others. Privacy being the most common shared reason.
Ok that’s it I spoiled it! Now you don’t need to read on 😜 But I’ll explain anyways.
Privacy
Google gives their applications and services away for free. This is extreeemly attractive! We humans are cheap! That’s not totally fair.. But I think in regard to software it holds true.
We will buy the best hardware in the world and then we hunt for the cheapest software we can find. But this is a rabbit hole.. I won’t go down today.
What we often forget(my self included) is to stop and ask your self a question:
How are they able to pay people to make this if they are giving it away for free?
Don’t know? Let me help you out. You are paying with your data!
Of course there are exceptions that I won’t go into here. But for the most part this holds true.
Google specifically is an ad company. This is how they make money. “But I thought Google was just a search engine?” Nope they historically make most money on ads. Here is one example of many out there talking about this. So your data feeds their ad machine.
Creeped out yet? Me too..
Google Grave yard
A less common reason.. I’ll try not to sound too bitter here. Bear with me. But Google has left in its wake a trail of bodies.
A few that I used to use:
- Google Wave - so cool
- Google Reader - still don’t have one I like as much
- 100 different messaging products - I’m exaggerating… but only slightly
- Many more
Its enough that there is a dedicated website just to products Google has killed:
If they can’t figure out how to get their ad clicks or get bored (seems to be the case of messengers) to the chopping block they go!
Diversity
It goes a bit beyond Google for me. Its more like a way of life. As the old saying goes:
Dont put all of your eggs in one basket
What if a company went out of business and took all of your data with them? This has happened.
Diversifying the companies you use for services you can’t host your self is like hedging your bets.
Thats it folks! Hopefully my perspective is different enough to be interesting. 😜 I might follow this up with how I have de-googled.