Are you "google free" ?

[fgraver@hcommons.social]

@futurebird I’ve had my gmail-account since it was still in beta… I’ve switched to another provider for my email (Runbox) but keep finding that gmail is intricately woven into my online presences—getting out is hard! Also, I have many people I collaborate with nationally and internationally, and they insist on using google docs for collaborative writing. Unfortunately, none of the alternatives are as flexible yet.

[jmax@mastodon.social]

@futurebird - Search / maps is particularly hard, because of the number of other sites that use them.

[owl@gts.u8.is]

@futurebird no account/email, but I do use YouTube quite a lot (they still support RSS for channels)

[chessert@mastodon.online]

@futurebird

I have a Google account. I have it only to be able to login to YouTube. I still have a Google Mail account, and Google Drive space, but they both have no content at all (for a few years now).

[chris_evelyn@fedi.chris-evelyn.de]

@futurebird I don‘t aspire to be completely google free since that is very hard to impossible, if only for YouTube.

But I try to minimize my contacts with it as much as possible.

[darkling@mstdn.social]

@futurebird I rage-quit Google about 18 months ago -- not that I was using the account for anything much anyway. It was precipitated by a supplier at work creating a new account for me for... some reason on other. When I logged in to it, Google automatically linked that account to my earlier one, without asking, and with no obvious method of unlinking them again.

I also took the opportunity to ditch LinkedIn at the same time, just because.

[alexadeswift@lgbtqia.space]

@futurebird

I have an email account which is essentially now a burner for use under duress for Android Auto.

In all other respects I am Google free.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@darkling

That's so creepy.

I wish you luck and strength on your journey to control your digital world

[kierkegaanks@beige.party]

@futurebird i still need google sheets (or ms office) and would lose what’s left of my mind without youtube, so i’m screwed

[chessert@mastodon.online]

@futurebird

Way back in the 2010s, I used to was a Google Developer (incorporating Google technologies into products the company that hired me was using: never worked for Google itself).

[weirdfish@literatur.social]

@futurebird Actually I use YouTube but only via #invidious or the #newpipe app. So that's kind of minimalinvasive. I've no Google Account though, not even on my Smartphone.

[lionelb@expressional.social]

@futurebird

I watch YouTube from a couple of steps removed. There are gems there and to eschew it entirely would be like vowing never to step into a library ever again.

Adam Harrison on Pennsylvania forests would be a painful loss.

[darkling@mstdn.social]

@futurebird It's not been too difficult for me in general, because I've *never* used the big services much, if at all. LinkedIn was the only "social" media site I was ever on. I ditched GitHub in favour of Codeberg in the autumn. I have my own domain name, and have been running a website and my own email on it for nearly 25 years.

At this point, for me, it's more about avoiding clicking on YouTube links than wresting control back from the dominant services.

[rachelthornsub@famichiki.jp]

@futurebird Ironically, I bought a 9-year-old Google Pixel phone specifically to be able to use a non-Google (and non-Apple) OS. (I have lost faith in Apple and am trying to dump them all.) My Pixel runs Lineage OS and I have never had to log in to my Google account to use it.

But I still have a Gmail account that is the only mail address a lot of people have for me. (Still, I have deleted the Gmail apps and only use the web interface for Gmail.)

The struggle continues.

[rogerbw@discordian.social]

@futurebird Never had a login, but the hardest one to give up was maps.

[black_flag@beige.party]

@futurebird This would also require not having an Android phone.

[normjess@tech.lgbt]

@futurebird I have an account via YouTube I guess, but I only use it in emergencies, when the usual methods of circumventing age restricted videos is not working and there's something politically important I must see

I have no desire to have a custom algorithm and that info about me existing somewhere in someone else's computer

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@futurebird I have a gmail, but I haven't actually used it for several years. I gradually migrated everything from there to Runbox last year, but have kept it in case there's something I've forgotten to move over. After I did the initial migration, I deleted my entire inbox and mail history.

I don't log in for search or youtube, but I still sometimes use both. Much less than I used to, though.

[thejessiekirk@ohai.social]

@futurebird Sadly, I do still have a Google account that I use for microG, Android gaming and watching age-restrictid videos on YouTube. I don't see any of that changing, unfortunately.

[alkaid@social.lol]

@futurebird I consume YT in two ways: through my gf's premium account and apps or extensions that block ads. Some of my faves share their videos through Patreon (Dead Meat is a must for their uncut vids), but most sadly don't.

I ditched Google search a few years ago for better alternatives, but Gmail is the hardest to drop because I either can't change emails for some accounts, or am required to be locked in their ecosystem (esp if I want to sell books on the Google Play store, but I have a specific and rarely used account for that).

Also Steam makes it really hard to change my email lmao. So it's trapped there at the moment, but I have long since changed email providers. Gmail is mostly my junk mailbox now.