Google is great.
They make all sorts of cool and useful products and most people use them every day.
But what if you decided not to?
Could you?
Let's check it out.
Yep, you heard me.
It might sound like a pretty dumb question at first: yes, of course you can.
You just have to decide to do it.
But it might not be as easy as you think it is.
So let's go ahead and see what a normal day would look like if you were to put on
a protest and completely avoid any sort of google product.
So, here goes nothing.
It's early in the morning and you wake up.
You stop your alarm and reach for your phone, but wait.
Is it an android phone?
In that case, it's off limits.
Android is developed by google, so you'll have to settle for an iPhone or a Windows
Phone.
But let's say you have an iPhone, so it's all good.
Do you want to use your computer?
Great.
Google chrome is a no-go zone, but that's ok, you'll just install Mozilla Firefox.
It's a great browser and it's pretty similar to its google counterpart.
You'll need a search engine that is not google.com.
At first, you might think "Oh no, not bing."... and you'd be right.
Not bing.
Instead, go for DuckDuckGo.
You might not have heard of it, but it comes up with results that are similar in quality
to the ones provided by everyone's favourite tech giant and, in addition to that, the interface
is pretty familiar looking as well, with a modern layout and all the functions that you
are used to.
So far you've been pretty successful, but what are you going to do now that you're
on the web?
YouTube is owned by google, so that isn't an option.
You'll have to go to some other site.
Maybe it's vimeo, maybe it's Twitch, maybe it's Facebook.
Who knows?
But you might want to install adblock, because Google also owns services like AdWords, AdSense
and Doubleclick, which are responisble for a huge percentage of the ads that you consume,
and that also applies to a lot of the ads that you see on your phone, even if it isn't
an android device.
Also, if you have to create an account or log in somewhere and the site requires you
to complete a CAPTCHA, bad luck.
Google owns reCAPTCHA.
But that's enough time wasted surfing the internet for now.
What do you have to do today?
Normally, you might check your google calendar, but that is definitely off limits.
So you have to reach for something else.
Let's say outlook; that's a pretty widespread option.
While you're dealing with outlook, you might as well create an email address over there
or on yahoo mail, if that's what floats your boat, because gmail, the most popular
email provider, is owned by Google.
Great.
Now you know where you have to get to, but how do you get over there?
Don't go to google maps, that's "no bueno".
Maybe Waze can help, only wait, it can't.
Google owns them as well.
An alternative is Here WeGo.
You probably haven't heard of them, because Google Maps is so unanimously accepted, but
they have great reviews and should be able to get you to your destination.
Do you need a file while you're away from home?
Google Drive is not an option, so try Dropbox or Microsoft's OneDrive instead.
They're pretty good and give you plenty of storage.
Pictures, however, are a bit of a different story.
Google Photos gives you free unlimited cloud storage for your photos so you can conveniently
access, sort and share them from anywhere.
But we're trying to avoid google, so Amazon Prime Photos is your best shot but only IF
you are already an amazon prime customer, which costs money.
Otherwise, you might want to try Flickr.
It's not unlimited, but the 1TB of cloud storage that they give you is quite a few
photos worth.
iCloud and iCloud Photos are also other options worth considering if you are a loyal Apple
customer and prefer those instead.
Some other random things that you can't use are, in no particular order:
Google Home (you'll have to go for Amazon Echo instead)
Google Keep (you'll have to use something like Evernote or Microsoft OneNote for your
random cross-platform note taking).
Google Images (try using the DuckDuckGo image search instead, or, dare i say it, bing)
Google Translate (again, try bing translate.
It's not quite as good, but it will do for simple things)
Google Hangouts, used by quite a few small companies.
If your workplace requires you to use this, bad luck.
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.
For project colaborations you might have to look to Office Online or something similar.
Google Chromecast.
Google Firebase.
If you develop mobile applications, you might know what it is.
If you don't, then don't worry about it.
Chromebooks, the laptop of choice for a lot of students on a tight budget who just need
something that they can take to class.
They aren't produced by google, but they run ChromeOS, which obviously is.
Gboard, the google keyboard.
If you use it on your iOS device, you'll have to find something else.
I'd recommend SwiftKey as an alternative.
And the list just goes on and on
So, it's conclusion time.
Could you avoid Google?
Yes.
Would you find it easy?
Probably not.
Would it affect your daily tech experience in a negative way?
Probably yes.
Would I advise you to do it?
No, no way, no!
Like it or not, google products have pushed out competition in so many fields due to their
clean interface, user-friendly behaviour and widespread availability that avoiding them
completely would just add an unnecessary hassle to your otherwise probably already pretty
stressful life.
So, until something better shows up, just stick with the jolly tech giant.
So, I really do hope you enjoyed this video and if you want to see more you can click
on the right to watch my latest video or on the left to watch a random video or just click
the round channel icon in the middle to subscribe.
And as always, this has been vlad from goodsauce tech, and i'll catch you in the next one.
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