[205guy]

I find the number of Google "so-what" apologists rather striking in this thread. Not saying the OP did it right or did the right thing, but as a life experiment, it seems honorable. Personally, I find Google's omni-presence a bit scary as well. I never adopted gmail (except as a throw-away address to sign up with HN and other websites :-). The other service OP didn't mention is Google Analytics: so I tell Google everything about my site, then I expect it to broker ads for me honestly?

In addition to the personal tracking, I really agree with the following quote from the OP:

"I find that Google and SEO and tracking have soiled the web in unbelievable ways. Google has imposed a constraint on content through its ad business that I can't get away from, because content is trying to adapt to Google so it can be found, but especially because content becomes monetized in doing so-- to the detriment of us all."