[jjrh]

The big difference is facebook could die over night - some hot new thing gets popular and facebook disappears into obscurity. (unlikely but a possibility)

Google on the other hand is not so easy to replace, it's not a popular trend, it's in the browser i'm typing on, my pocket, my map/navigation, email, chat. Google knows a disturbing amount of information about me I never intentionally gave. Facebook just knows what I tell it.

A malicious google could do a unthinkable amount of damage to society, there is little we could do if we even knew it was happening.

[gnode]

Personally, I found Google much easier to replace than Facebook. In the case of Google, I started using DuckDuckGo, and it's been fine. There are alternatives for maps and email too.

In the case of Facebook there's a lot of peer pressure which keeps people on the platform. To leave Facebook (for most people), your friends also need to leave with you. Unfortunately, while this is slowly happening now, people seem to be flocking to platforms also owned by Facebook -- Instagram and WhatsApp.