February 26th, 2010
Yes, that’s right. Quit trying to quit Google.
I’ve been reading a few articles lately that are suggesting that you should quit Google, some that don’t give a good reason and others that give no reason at all.
Before I continue on there are a few things we must clear the air with. I’m not trying to convince you to stay with Google. If you want to leave, so be it! I’m not against other options but some of these options just aren’t that great and you are probably worse off using them. If you are wanting to quit Google because they are becoming “too large”, please put your tin foil hat on now and walk away. You use the Internet for fsck sakes, it’s like spreading your seed where ever you go.
Search
I’ve seen lots of recommendations to Bing and Yahoo. I haven’t used those sites for years, there’s a reason for that. Google rocks their tubsocks off. Granted I know Bing is new but it’s just MSN rebranded with a few visual tweaks. That also seems to be the “key” benifit for all these articles recommended it.
-”Bing and Yahoo are spending a lot of time trying to differentiate themselves from Google by working images, graphics, and videos into the search results pages.”
-”The best alternative to Google, by a long shot, is Microsoft’s Bing. It’s an evolution of the Live search engine, and it’s offers a distinctly different experience than Google: it’s far from minimalist, with a colorful interface, content-tailored results pages, and and emphasis on reducing clicks, rather than reducing clutter.”
Seriously? When I search for something, I want it to be fast. Show me the results! Saying that they are trying to enhance the visual appeal over the clutter would be like putting a clean diaper over a dirty one and putting it back on the baby. Just cuz it looks new on the inside and outside doesn’t hide the fact that there is still shit in the diaper.
You want an alternative, try ask.com.
This is the one that bothered me the most. So grab your tin foil hat, body suit and shield your house because they might be listening…….
In all seriousness, leaving Gmail for another mail service is quite dumb. You’ve probably established name for yourself with that email address which makes getting rid of it harder or just not an option at all. There are ways to do it though, I will however not be going into that.
Most of these E-Mail services offer all the same things. If you’re happy with one, why leave it? Explore your other options before you go trying to switch everything over. Those articles really made it seem like you could do this during your lunch break. Welcome back to reality, you can’t.
Back to our tin foil, you’re worried about Google spying on you. Using your information against you. Um… ! Well switching to Windows Live could be worse than what we think we know about Google. Some info was posted today about a Microsoft Handbook being leaked about what they do with their information if the police ever ask for it. They even yelled “DMCA” like a little boy crying wolf which took down the site that reported the document leak that undoubtedly the public as the right to know about.
All in all, if you are that worried about your E-Mail and other stuff being read then stop using any site that requires any sort of login. In fact I suggest you just stop using the Internet all together.
Summary
Google’s services are much faster and filled with less clutter. Yes, they had their Buzz issue but Windows has bugs that effect XP that Microsoft takes weeks to fix or say that they will never fix it. I think that Google shows time and again that they care about the users more than their competitors do. No one can be perfect and there will always be the corporate bullshit. You just will have to decide what to accept and either accept it or move along.
Well, you misspelled summary (which is weird, because doesn’t Firefox have spellcheck?)
Also, blowing off Google’s privacy violation using an example by Microsoft is great, just great. Because one company doing something bad is invalidated by a competitor doing something worse. “Hushmail?” Fuck that. “https://ssl.scroogle.org”? Fuck that too.
Well Sam, yes it does. And rather than telling you that, I wasn’t using Firefox nor that it was late as shit when I wrote it or that we’re all fucking human and make mistakes. I’d rather point out the obvious that “Summery” is actually a word with in the English directory. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/summery
Look around you. All of these free services that offer E-Mail are using your info in one way shape or form. It’s up to you, which was my point of the story, to decide what is actually best or not. You even prove what I was trying to convey by saying that Google = Bad and Microsoft = Worse. It doesn’t make sense to leave A if B is worse.
Google’s privacy issue? I’m going to guess here since you aren’t specific that you mean the whole Buzz issue. Well it’s fixed. Got fixed quickly too compared to some of the nasty bugs that get found in all sorts of popular software. Lets take Adobe Reader for example. The whole javascript bug, remember that? Adobe didn’t release anything official for months iirc. While individuals did, there are a lot of people who aren’t tech savvy and would not have even known to think about looking for those fixes. Shit, they probably didn’t even know there was a bug.
Maybe instead of being an ass|hat of the idiocracy society, you could reply back with some concrete examples with some constructive criticism or have you not learned that yet in high school?
Yeah, I know, huh? Google has been with us for going on 12 years now; I never heard many people having big problems with it. Microsoft launches Bing, and all of a sudden the web is crawling with Googlenoia. There’s no connection between those two events, naturally. And if you pull my other leg, it plays Pachabel’s Canon in D.
I think the connection was the Buzz incident. However that got fixed so quickly, honestly I didn’t know about it until I started reading those articles that were bashing Google and giving alternatives to switch to.
/pull-leg
Ah…. it didn’t play.