“Don’t be evil.”
The unofficial mantra of Google was actually removed from its code of conduct in May, and maybe the recently admitted “privacy mistakes” made by the tech giant (which just turned 20) suggest a company that is, well, no longer a force for good.
If you’re looking for alternatives, ask Pieter Levels. The “serial maker” behind such sites as Nomad List and Hoodmaps recently unveiled No More Google, a barebones site rich in links to privacy-friendly sites, browsers and web apps.
“I think big companies deserve pushback when they’re going in a way that’s not in the user’s interest,” Levels wrote on a post at Product Hunt. “And we as the (paying) users, have a democratic say by using their products or not. If we want to stop using their products, we need to know good alternatives though.”
A publicly edited list that allows users to upvote their favorites, NMG suggests the following non-Google products:
- In lieu of Chrome, try the (now much improved) Firefox
- Need to search? The no-tracking DuckDuckGo is a lifesaver.
- And since you’ll never remember passwords, forget Chrome’s Password manager and test out KeePass (although we swear by Dashlane, which is fifth on their list)
The site also offers alternatives to Google Analytics (Matomo), Gmail (FastMail), Docs (Notion), Sheets (Airtable) and even weather (Dark Sky).
Look, switching over isn’t easy — yours truly realized he was using Google to search for articles about Google’s recent privacy woes, right after he asked his Google Home Mini if it was going to rain. But as a general rule, not putting all your interweb habits into one company’s hands is pretty solid advice.
Photo: Servizi Multimediali/Flickr Creative Commons license
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