Comments on: An experiment to be Google-Free http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/ Conning people into thinking I'm intelligent. Since 1982. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:52:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Swaroop http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131258 Swaroop Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:17:10 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131258 <p>@Ajay Unfortunately, I haven't found a good alternative to Feedburner yet. But I would recommend <a href="http://piwik.org" rel="nofollow">Piwik</a> (open source) or <a href="http://www.haveamint.com" rel="nofollow">Mint</a> (paid), the most appropriate I found so far.</p> @Ajay Unfortunately, I haven’t found a good alternative to Feedburner yet. But I would recommend Piwik (open source) or Mint (paid), the most appropriate I found so far.

]]> By: Ajay Reddy http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131257 Ajay Reddy Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:02:38 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131257 <p>Swaroop,</p> <p>Are you tracking subscription to your feeds? I'm trying to avoid feedburner on http://hitchhikingindia.com but the alternative is to add a page with a meta refresh, which doesn't work on tumblr blogs.</p> Swaroop,

Are you tracking subscription to your feeds? I’m trying to avoid feedburner on http://hitchhikingindia.com but the alternative is to add a page with a meta refresh, which doesn’t work on tumblr blogs.

]]> By: Swaroop http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131255 Swaroop Thu, 15 Apr 2010 02:15:37 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131255 <p>@Neerav There is a difference between delivering value and being overbearing. And I have listed exact specific reasons for my concern.</p> <p>@Sreenivas So are you saying we should <em>not</em> use products by startups? ... And only you can understand multiple IDs, etc. What about the average person?</p> @Neerav There is a difference between delivering value and being overbearing. And I have listed exact specific reasons for my concern.

@Sreenivas So are you saying we should not use products by startups? … And only you can understand multiple IDs, etc. What about the average person?

]]> By: Sreenivas http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131253 Sreenivas Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:59:27 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131253 <p>Smaller players must find a viable model to survive. If I use services of startups whose business model is not yet proven then I should be prepared for frequent hops. How feasible is it?</p> <p>Can we stay with google, use multiple IDs for different types of activities, and ensure that a whole picture is not understood by Google? For example, I have five google IDs, each of these IDs is used for different purposes. By grouping activity types, I'm giving out more detailed information. However, unless, there is an easy way of linking these email Ids, there is no way for Google to profile me fully.</p> Smaller players must find a viable model to survive. If I use services of startups whose business model is not yet proven then I should be prepared for frequent hops. How feasible is it?

Can we stay with google, use multiple IDs for different types of activities, and ensure that a whole picture is not understood by Google? For example, I have five google IDs, each of these IDs is used for different purposes. By grouping activity types, I’m giving out more detailed information. However, unless, there is an easy way of linking these email Ids, there is no way for Google to profile me fully.

]]> By: Neerav Parekh http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131252 Neerav Parekh Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:40:01 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131252 <p>Nice post Swaroop.. Thank you for letting us all know of a few alternatives that at least I was not aware of.</p> <p>Having said that, I would like to go against the general consensus here. I agree with most of the concerns that you've raised against google. But I don't think they give me a sufficient reason to stop using their services totally. Let us look at a few positives of the google economy..</p> <p>Text-based contextual advertising has revolutionized the web. It has ensured that a wealth of information gets published by both amateurs as well as experts as they get compensated by ads.</p> <p>The revenue that they are generating via these text ads subsidizes their work on building useful free apps like gmail, google apps, reader, etc.</p> <p>We as customers have got a great deal from google via their free products. But they also need to give the advertisers an equally good deal to continue providing the free products. Hence, I find nothing wrong if they try and analyse my data to understand my habits and behaviour to provide targetted ads. Serves both the advertiser and me as well!!</p> <p>Besides, being a heavy internet user, I have lots of my data, including email, online. This runs into tens of gbs. I am sure that with the kind of infrastructure that Google has, the chances of me losing my data are negligible as compared to having it only on my local server and being backed up every now and then. Saves me all the hassle of installations, updates, backups. etc.</p> <p>There are a lot of other benefits.. I can go on and on but would stop here.</p> <p>The general public always loves to hate a giant and likes to support the underdog till it becomes a giant itself.. remember supporting google v/s microsoft?</p> Nice post Swaroop.. Thank you for letting us all know of a few alternatives that at least I was not aware of.

Having said that, I would like to go against the general consensus here. I agree with most of the concerns that you’ve raised against google. But I don’t think they give me a sufficient reason to stop using their services totally. Let us look at a few positives of the google economy..

Text-based contextual advertising has revolutionized the web. It has ensured that a wealth of information gets published by both amateurs as well as experts as they get compensated by ads.

The revenue that they are generating via these text ads subsidizes their work on building useful free apps like gmail, google apps, reader, etc.

We as customers have got a great deal from google via their free products. But they also need to give the advertisers an equally good deal to continue providing the free products. Hence, I find nothing wrong if they try and analyse my data to understand my habits and behaviour to provide targetted ads. Serves both the advertiser and me as well!!

Besides, being a heavy internet user, I have lots of my data, including email, online. This runs into tens of gbs. I am sure that with the kind of infrastructure that Google has, the chances of me losing my data are negligible as compared to having it only on my local server and being backed up every now and then. Saves me all the hassle of installations, updates, backups. etc.

There are a lot of other benefits.. I can go on and on but would stop here.

The general public always loves to hate a giant and likes to support the underdog till it becomes a giant itself.. remember supporting google v/s microsoft?

]]> By: ವಡೆ-ಪಾಯ್ಸ http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131247 ವಡೆ-ಪಾಯ್ಸ Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:55:23 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131247 <p>Yes, the GMail problem leaves me sleepless at nights :P No, seriously! I have some 4-5GB of insanely important data on GMail servers and I have no idea how to download them, because IMAP and POP just don't work on old accounts.</p> <p>But, GMail is a lot better than Y! Mail, which did not even offer POP (Which was why I moved out.. I don't know the current state though)</p> <p>As for the search Paranoia, I've started using chome in incognito for searches.</p> <p>The problem with ditching Google services is that they are so darn good that other services will leave me begging to return. I am a very quick to try new services and startups, but not too many people maintain my interest.</p> <ol> <li>Bing: Slow</li> <li>Mint: who pays money for analytics? I use AwStats instead and sometimes parse apache logs myself. They are much better than Google Analytics anyway!</li> <li>Reader: ttrss? no srsly. I need a real reader.</li> <li>Feedburner: Dont use it</li> <li>Apps: GMail for my domain.. very lucrative</li> <li>Contacts: I dont know too many people :)</li> <li>Calendar: The one on my phone</li> </ol> <p>and also, not to forget Chrome and Picasa.. both of which I use heavily.</p> <p>I sure wish there services much better than Google keep popping up.</p> Yes, the GMail problem leaves me sleepless at nights :P
No, seriously! I have some 4-5GB of insanely important data on GMail servers and I have no idea how to download them, because IMAP and POP just don’t work on old accounts.

But, GMail is a lot better than Y! Mail, which did not even offer POP (Which was why I moved out.. I don’t know the current state though)

As for the search Paranoia, I’ve started using chome in incognito for searches.

The problem with ditching Google services is that they are so darn good that other services will leave me begging to return. I am a very quick to try new services and startups, but not too many people maintain my interest.

  1. Bing: Slow
  2. Mint: who pays money for analytics? I use AwStats instead and sometimes parse apache logs myself. They are much better than Google Analytics anyway!
  3. Reader: ttrss? no srsly. I need a real reader.
  4. Feedburner: Dont use it
  5. Apps: GMail for my domain.. very lucrative
  6. Contacts: I dont know too many people :)
  7. Calendar: The one on my phone

and also, not to forget Chrome and Picasa.. both of which I use heavily.

I sure wish there services much better than Google keep popping up.

]]> By: Swaroop http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131230 Swaroop Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:53:25 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131230 <p>@Monica Bing has a <a href="http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2009/12/if_you_have_nothing.html" rel="nofollow">better privacy policy than Google</a>, and equally important, the search results by Bing are usually good enough for me compared to Google, I still haven't faced the need to go back to Google Search, which is quite surprising to me.</p> @Monica Bing has a better privacy policy than Google, and equally important, the search results by Bing are usually good enough for me compared to Google, I still haven’t faced the need to go back to Google Search, which is quite surprising to me.

]]> By: Monica Rohit http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131224 Monica Rohit Thu, 01 Apr 2010 09:44:50 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131224 <p>Awesome analysis swaroop!! but u haven left any comments on bing v/s google search....wud like to know more about that :)</p> Awesome analysis swaroop!! but u haven left any comments on bing v/s google search….wud like to know more about that :)

]]> By: Swaroop http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131221 Swaroop Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:25:04 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131221 <p>@Helen Aah yes, I have not read Trent's site in a while, always remember him for the amazingly detailed book reviews.</p> <p>Yes, great idea, I remember I had a private MediaWiki installation for a very long time - it was fantastic. IIRC, I stopped doing that because moving stuff around was proving to be painful, but it was really useful, simple, extensible and really private :)</p> @Helen Aah yes, I have not read Trent’s site in a while, always remember him for the amazingly detailed book reviews.

Yes, great idea, I remember I had a private MediaWiki installation for a very long time – it was fantastic. IIRC, I stopped doing that because moving stuff around was proving to be painful, but it was really useful, simple, extensible and really private :)

]]> By: Helen South http://www.swaroopch.com/blog/google-free/comment-page-1/#comment-131218 Helen South Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:28:19 +0000 http://www.swaroopch.com/?p=2925#comment-131218 <p>Oh yes, Leo Babuta, of course. Trent is at The Simple Dollar, - thesimpledollar.com - another site I read regularly. He does particularly thorough book reviews. I don't always agree with him (of course) but even the ideas I disagree with encourage me to take another look at my views and consider alternatives.</p> <p>I've just started using my personal website as a private wiki to use instead of Google or Evernote - well should I say, I'm in the process of installing it. Basically it involves installing a second Wordpress installation and making it private. See davidhewson.net</p> <p>I'm very excited about this - it's my own space, I have total control over it, no adverts! And hosting is quite cheap.</p> Oh yes, Leo Babuta, of course. Trent is at The Simple Dollar, – thesimpledollar.com – another site I read regularly. He does particularly thorough book reviews. I don’t always agree with him (of course) but even the ideas I disagree with encourage me to take another look at my views and consider alternatives.

I’ve just started using my personal website as a private wiki to use instead of Google or Evernote – well should I say, I’m in the process of installing it. Basically it involves installing a second WordPress installation and making it private. See davidhewson.net

I’m very excited about this – it’s my own space, I have total control over it, no adverts! And hosting is quite cheap.

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