In light of yesterday’s abysmal experience with Google Photos, I’ve been examining how much of my digital life is tied to Google. It’s a sobering list:
- Calendar
File storage(mostly taken care of)- Blog
- Chrome
- Search history
- URL history
- Profiles
- Bookmarks
- Remote Desktop
- Identity management on dozens of sites
- Contacts
- Chat
- Map location information and saved addresses
- Video search and viewing history
Social media (sort of)(deleted)(spoke too soon; damn Youtube)
It’s odd to contemplate a digital life without Google; I’ve had a Gmail account since at least 2005, but have imported email that goes as far back as 2001. The stuff I did prior to that have been lost, frankly, and I can’t imagine losing more.
It’s also odd to find the tendrils that have moved outward from my Google account over the years. Apple is a good example. When I bought my first Apple device, I was prompted to get an iTunes/iCloud/iSomething account and, naturally, used my existing Gmail address. Years later, that has now proven to be a somewhat permanent choice. I can change my ID to something else, as long as it’s not Apple.
My approach to analyzing how to move away from Google products was to isolate the things I use to the individual service I get it from, as much as possible. The thought with Apple was to have a @icloud email address and do my Apple business under that. There goes that idea.
So, now I have to figure out what to do. Fastmail seems to be the go-to, for-fee service for mail, but I’m the jerk that wants a custom domain. So now I’m paying for mail hosting, a domain, and the headache of having to keep that working.
I get the value of Gmail and Google services; I’m a long-time customer. The Google Photos issue has shown me, though, that all that data in one bucket is dangerous and potentially increases my risk profile. I’m not sure I can accept that anymore. Now it’s a value proposition against my own time and effort. At least Google has my laziness on its side.