The DeGoogling: Part 2 - The Plan

After a few weeks of auditing my Google ecosystem I've come up with the following list of Google services that I am going to replace with alternatives. If you are wondering why I am doing this, read Part 1.

Let's dive in.

As mentioned in my previous post I wanted to rank them by the following:

• What Google services or devices do I use?
• What is my reliance on each service?
• What alternative services are available?
• What is the level of effort to replace each service?

As you can see from the list there are already a few items completed and some in progress. While they are not necessarily a result of this plan, they certainly were an impetus. Additionally, you'll see some that I don't yet have an alternative solution selected. While there are services I am certainly leaning towards, I don't plan on blindly adopting them. It'll be comparing, installing, and testing different solutions to find the one that I feel is best and worth dedicating the effort to switch to and maintain.

The Plan

Outside of the services that are completed or are in progress I plan to knock one or two services out a month starting with those that are high reliance and low effort, then moving up the list to high reliance and medium/high effort and so fourth. I'm banking on these early and easy wins to help build and maintain momentum throughout this process.

Let's start with the services that I have already selected or completed the changeover.

Progress

Exit Google Chrome - Enter Firefox

Google Chrome is a solid browser, however, I have always used Firefox as my daily driver since I can remember, certainly before Chrome was released in 2008. That being said, I have used Chrome for work for years now and will continue to do so as my organization relies heavily on Google Workspace and for that it works great and I don't mind if Google has access to my company data.  Not my circus, not my monkeys. It is also easier to use different browsers for work and personal life than it is to manage in-browser identities.

I won't deep dive into the differences between the two regarding features, speed, Webkit vs Gecko, etc.  However, I will say that I have never found a reason to switch to Chrome from Firefox as someone that uses both equally. In fact, with their 138 update a year or two ago it gave me a reason to stay with Firefox, which has uBlock Origin support.  With this update, Google implemented new security standards (I'm all here for improving security), which unfortunately blocked many highly rated and used extensions, uBlock Origin being one of them.

uBlock Origin is hands down the best open-source ad blocker browser extensions and I won't run a browser without it. Yes, I can run a PiHole or AdGuard, but if I'm out and about and don't have a VPN setup I want the convenience of a browser extension.  It is also easy to set up on my extended family member's computers, which cuts drastically down on their technical support calls.

Exit Google Search - Enter DuckDuckGo

In 2024-ish I fully switched over from Google Search to DuckDuckGo. Google had been providing a degrading search experience for a few years at that point and with so much of the screen real estate taken up with summaries, sponsored content, and bloat, I found it an annoying experience anytime I used it.

I had tried DuckDuckGo years ago before 2024, but it just didn't provide decent results at the time and I never committed to using it. However, revisiting it in 2024 I was surprised how far it had come. It reminds me of Google Search in its prime. With the addition of advanced privacy built-in and the ability to disable AI, I was sold. I highly recommend you check it out if you are looking for a Google Search alternative.

Exit Google Auth - Enter Ente Auth

Google Auth was the first service I switched off of for the purpose of this project. It was also the most annoying one to deal with so I wanted to knock it out.  As part of this series I'll be providing a dedicated breakdown of each service, so I'll leave this snippet brief as I will cover Ente Auth in my next post.  I used Google Auth for my personal and work 2FA, however, it had many shortcomings that caused daily annoyance such as:

1. No ability to edit the name or details of entries
2. No ability to pin entries for quick access
3. No ability to sort entries
4. No way to share entries
5. No ability to tag entries
6. No browser interface

As mentioned, I'll provide a more detailed breakdown of Ente Auth in my next post. Ente was started as an open source company in 2020.  Their first project was a privacy focused Google Photos alternative.  They also have Ente Auth, Ente Locker, and Ensu their LLM.

Exit Google Nest Wifi - Enter Ubiquiti

When we moved into our home a few years back we were using GoogleFi for our mobile plans and received some nice discounts on Google Nest products, which was great as we were looking to add Nest Cameras, doorbells, and a Google Home Max device to act as our central hub.  As such, the Google Nest router seemed like a no brainer to allow everything to work together seamlessly.  And it did.  Setup and management of devices was simple and everything just worked.  We did end up switching over to Verizon given they had much better reception coverage in our area.

However, as a compromise the system was very limited in what could be configured or modified especially for someone running a homelab.  While that was OK and could be worked around Google started adding more and more of Gemini into the ecosystem and by this point, I was over AI being shoved into everything we owned.  And as I mentioned in my previous post that the fact that I have been part of two separate class action lawsuits against Google relating to consumer privacy in the last two years it was time to make a switch.

If you know anything about homelabs then you'll know Ubiquiti products are highly rated and provide a myriad of configurations and control from both a hardware and software perspective.

Similar to Ente Auth, I'll be covering my Unifi/homelab setup in more detail in a separate post.

Exit Gmail/GCal - Enter ProtonMail/ProtonCalendar

From my previous entries it should be a no-brainer why I want to move away from Gmail. As someone who has used both Tutanota and Proton Mail off and on over the years I felt it was finally time to revisit them with the intention of fully switching over.

While both offer similar strengths regarding encryption, privacy, and security, Proton Mail is the more polished of the two and it has a neat creation story that I want to support out of the coolness factor alone. Both the web and mobile app experience are excellent and feel like an enterprise level product.

While it is easy to sign up for an email account with any of these services, it is not hard to update your various accounts to use the new email address; it is time consuming.  Especially for myself who has been using multiple Gmail addresses for decades at this point, some of which are family shared, and while my family are not tech-adverse, they could use some more practice.

I expect this changeover to take the longest out of all of the services simply due to the volume of accounts associated with my current addresses and will likely be the conclusion of the entire DeGoogle project. This is fitting as I mentioned in my last post that Gmail was my original introduction into the Google ecosystem. So it makes sense it would be my last.

It has been a nice exercise and way to cut down on the amount of accounts I have out there.  Every new email I have to consider if I want this account associated with my new address or do I still want this account open at all? Over the next few months I'll be continuing this email audit at a slow and deliberate pace.

I plan on wrapping up my posts on Ente Auth and Ubiquity before segueing into finding a Google Maps/Waze alternative... if I can.

Until next time.