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See the real thing Google has is not that they offer a bunch of services, it's that those services are all tied together very neatly. When I transition to a new computer all I have to do is install chrome and I basically have everything I need - the login will get me all my extensions + put me in email, calander, voice, youtube, and search. All with one login, that's the power, people are lazy, they don't really care about OSS or freedom, they follow the path of least resistance, and in this case that's Google, good or evil. It sucks but it's true. I keep thinking about moving to a different email provider but then I have to find one that does all the things that gmail does, and has a decent calender app (there is NO replacement for voice) and something that does search in an okay and understandable way. I can't find one. The only reason I use facebook over G+ is because I don't know anyone on G+ otherwise that too wold be my social network of choice. In addition my University uses Gapps so I'd be stuck with google regardless (for at least the next four years). And really that's the issue, so far it seems from history that once you reach a certain critical mass, there is no way to not be evil, Google was great until about 2011, but they've turned on us.... wow...just realized this is a lot of rambling... still I make a couple good points |
However, with Reader, it's kinda served as a warning to me. I use this stuff every day. Reader was just kinda the reminder that I don't own any of this stuff, and they can turn it off at any time. 2 years ago, I had basically zero fear of something like that. Today, especially with CalDAV support getting killed, it's just another warning to me that Google is a different company than it was.
Anyway, I'm typing this on Chrome in between reading Gmail and Google Voice messages and stuff, but I'm definitely looking for alternatives. Too much of my life relies on Google. Don't want all my eggs in one basket.