Closing the last of my Google services

ninjaap

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I only have 3 open Google services left: Gmail, Reader and YouTube. With the recent news of Reader being shutdown, I decided that its time to purge the rest. So last night I closed my YouTube account. And as soon as NextGenReader implements an alternative to Google Reader, I will kill off my Gmail account as well, because that is what I am currently using to log in with but is not used as an email. I will probably keep my Google open, but idle, in case YouTube proves to be a hassle to use without an account. Anyone else trying to become Google free?
 
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Narse77

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All free except for YouTube and Gmail. Will be awhile before I shut down Gmail though as I have had the account for a long long time and its tied to everything. I have it forwarding to outlook.com though.
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WavingReds

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I don't believe that we can truely become free of Google specially with Youtube.

I still have my gmail just for youtube and google voice and that's it.
 

link68759

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Deleted my google account a year ago, and I used to be really enthusiastic about using ALL google services.

I use Bing; image and video search is better, regular search works for me, can't say it's better or worse. Loving the Bing rewards.

There's no real alternative for google voice, but i initially got that so I could just have data and not pay for texts with ATT. Evil bastards don't let you micromanage like that anymore. I do miss seamless integration of pc/phone texting (can send a text on pc with a keyboard) but Skype lets me do that... For a price.

There's currently no worthwhile alternative to Reader but that'll change.

All in all the switch is pretty painless. Changing emails isn't as bad as you might think; you don't need to change every site all in one go. Do it next time you visit that site.

I have friends I haven't heard from since deleting gtalk (heh) because they refuse to use IRC, which is the only thing I use these days. IRC with server side channel history and an offline message service bot is pretty objectively better than any chat client. Only takes one geek to set it up for everyone so you can't really argue that it's not user friendly ;)
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ninjaap

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I signed up for News Blur, because it looks like that is what NextGen is going to. Once they add News Blur, its goooodbye Goooogle.
 

Laura Knotek

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I deleted my Google account at the end of January 2013. I didn't miss anything, since I only watch YouTube but never upload anything, so there is no need to sign in. I've already handled my RSS feeds via Weave for Windows Phone. Outlook is better than Gmail, since there is no "all mail" hassle with EAS.
 

electriclamb

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the worst thing that ever happened was google buying youtube. at least for anyone thats not a fan of google. It was genius on their part though. I hope that someday another video service can rival them but it seems far off considering youtube is a household name.

The only reason i have to sign into youtube is if im watching over 18 stuff like the Evil Dead red band trailer for example.
 

Luminatic

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I'm working on it. I've deleted my google account which was no issue. Getting rid of the google search functionality us the hardest part. (before you ask: no, in my country, Bing is not always an alternative.)
 

link68759

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I'm working on it. I've deleted my google account which was no issue. Getting rid of the google search functionality us the hardest part. (before you ask: no, in my country, Bing is not always an alternative.)

Ixquick
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romant56

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I deleted my entire google account through the account settings a month or so ago. It feels really good not having anything to do with them anymore.

A few years ago I was using google search, chrome, and had an Android phone. Now Microsoft has caught up on all those fronts and I don't miss google at all.

I did click a link that had an "adult content" youtube video in it that I couldn't watch since I couldn't sign in, but I'll take a minor problem like that. (I should probably be making better use of my time anyway!)
 

ninjaap

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I deleted my Google account at the end of January 2013. I didn't miss anything, since I only watch YouTube but never upload anything, so there is no need to sign in. I've already handled my RSS feeds via Weave for Windows Phone. Outlook is better than Gmail, since there is no "all mail" hassle with EAS.

Weave looks good! But I don't like how I can't separate my feeds when reading them. For example, reading or scrolling through WPCentral articles only, then move to Engadget.
 

pseudoware

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My wife and I have been using an account for years only to share a calendar on multiple devices (and any computer). Tons of recurring and one-off events. That would be the biggest challenge. I know I can switch to something else with some effort, but I'm not sure it's worth the backlash from her, as she just wants to be productive rather than dealing with changing stuff that ain't broke. Case in point: when I "upgraded" her PC to Windows 8 :unhappysweat:
 

WanderingTraveler

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If you really hate Google, you're better off using Youtube with Adblock.

And, to really come up with a proverbial slap to the face, buy a Microsoft mouse and keyboard :) (They really do make mice and keyboards)
 

Coreldan

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I switched to pretty as much as much Microsoft as possible with the Lumia 920. That said, I still use YouTube and since I upload to several channels regularly, I won't even try to get rid of that. No reason to really either.
 

speedtouch

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My wife and I have been using an account for years only to share a calendar on multiple devices (and any computer). Tons of recurring and one-off events. That would be the biggest challenge. I know I can switch to something else with some effort, but I'm not sure it's worth the backlash from her, as she just wants to be productive rather than dealing with changing stuff that ain't broke. Case in point: when I "upgraded" her PC to Windows 8 :unhappysweat:
Same here. My wife and I use Google Calendar heavily. It took me a long time to get her to even begin using Google Calendar and I doubt I could get her to move to another service without some extreme pressure.
 

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