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Does anyone here NOT hate Google?

I’m curious because I see a ton of Google hate on here daily. It’s certainly not all unwarranted, and I do agree with some of the privacy concerns.

That being said I do very much enjoy their products. Gmail, Photos, Chrome, Gemini, Home, Assistant, YouTube, Pixel phones, etc… I’ve tried out many of the alternatives but always come back to their ecosystem.

Curious as to how many of you here on the fedi use Google products without the common associated angst from the FOSS community.

MxRemy ,

This kinda conflates hate for the unethical practices of the company with hate for the quality of their products, which seems unfair. As a company they’re definitely bastards. There was a long, long period of time where their products were pretty unquestionably top-notch compared to everything else out there. However, for a while now everything has been going really downhill. Then recently it’s really accelerated, especially with them leaning into AI. These days I hardly even miss them anymore.

Confused_Emus ,

I at least enjoy their fiber internet service.

Reverendender ,

Nice try, paid Google shill.

UID_Zero ,
@UID_Zero@infosec.pub avatar

I’m indifferent to them. I use their products, but I’m not a huge fan. I use them because I dislike the alternatives more.

I’ve been considering trying to degoogle myself, but honestly it would be complicated, and there’s a wife-approval factor that likely hinders that. We have multiple Chromecasts, Next hubs, etc around the house, and my wife likes the ease of use. I am slowly building up a home assistant instance, but still tying it into the Google home integration for ease of wife approval.

I use what works best for me, and right now most of those options are from Google.

atrielienz ,

I don’t hate Google. I don’t trust them and I don’t think anyone else should either. Vet the products and services you use. But I don’t hate them.

scrubbles ,
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

This is it. I didn’t hate them because “big tech” like other people here. I loved Google and their stuff. But one by one they killed my favorite things, and they made me hate them.

If you don’t hate Google for killing s service you loved them your just waiting for them to do it.

atrielienz ,

They’ve killed a fair few of the services I’ve liked over the years. But there are other services I still like (with caveats) that I still use so it’s a mixed bag for me. If they kill those services I’ll move on to others.

Aurenkin ,

Agree with this. I think this also should extend to every corporation.

FuckyWucky ,

i hate all tech corps. you can use (and even like) their products and also think they are evil, oligopolies and all.

i cant abandon my gmail because i don’t even know how many sites and how many people i have given it to. i like youtube because it’s THE slop factory. Maps is also pretty good, love Street View, Chrome is ‘ok’ but Firefox is a perfectly usable (and in many ways, better) substitute (especially given Google’s ad shenanigans).

zelifcam , (edited )
@zelifcam@lemmy.world avatar

Made a decision long ago that I’m not going to browse the web, setup a calendar of life events or store my email with the largest advertising company in the world.

Their “eco system” is not the best and their hardware has been hit or miss over the years.

I understand why people do use them and I will use their products when absolutely required. I don’t hate them, I just avoid them.

Know_not_Scotty_does ,

Google made lots of stuff that I used and enjoyed, then slowly made them worse or outright killed them off. Hangouts was imo the gold standard of simple chat programs, their podcast app was excellent and ad free. Both are now gone.

They also have been ceaselessly working to wring every last cent out of their products at the expense of the user experience. The products and services were fine and they were making loads of money even with adblocking and tracker blocking in place but they knew they could make more money and most people would just accept the inconvenience so they said fuck em and ran with it.

southsamurai ,
@southsamurai@sh.itjust.works avatar

Hate? Ehhhh, no.

At least, no more than I hate any monolithic megacorp. You can’t really hate something that empty.

I mean, fuck Google, but trying to hate it is like trying to hate wind. Yeah, we could all get together and figure out a way to keep it from blowing, but you aren’t going to do so without a lot more work than people are willing to put in.

Most of Google’s apps work fine. Most of their services work smoothly. It’s the stuff they tack onto that that makes them hated, and it’s why I limit my use of their products. That is, however, a matter of choosing lesser evils far too often because all of the businesses in the same fields are also shitty.

If I was to waste hate on Google, it would be to their ceo and any board members. They’re the ones that make the company hateable.

nalinna ,

I’ve been actively trying to extricate myself from their ecosystem. I hate how incredibly challenging it is.

Zak ,
@Zak@lemmy.world avatar

Hate is a strong word.

I prefer to avoid their services due to privacy, and because over the long term, they’re unreliable. Any other for-profit corporation that tries to offer a bunch of free SASS products is going to end up with privacy issues as well; knowing the incentives lets us predict the outcome.

I’m keeping my Pixel 4a as long as I possibly can though.

sunzu , (edited )

It is mega Corp and they are all the same.

Treat them as the enemy of the people. Can't go wrong

Balinares ,

It’s not the company it once was, but there are also a lot of outrage-bait headlines about it that don’t hold up well to scrutiny.

For instance, there have been a lot of Lemmy posts about Chrome supposedly removing the APIs used by adblockers. I figured I’d validate that on my own by switching to the version of uBlock that is based on the new API. Well… As it turns out, it works fine. It’s also faster.

Mind you, figuring out the actual facts behind each post gets exhausting, and people just shutting down and avoiding the problem space entirely makes some sort of sense. That, and it is healthy for an ecosystem to have alternatives, so I’d keep encouraging usage of Firefox and such if only on that basis alone.

magic_lobster_party ,

Hate is a strong word.

I have a dislike for them. Especially in recent years. There was a time I thought they were the cool hip company with lots of cool innovations. When Google docs launched it was so revolutionary that two people could work with the same document at the same time.

Now I see them more for what they are: an advertisement provider. They’re only after our data. Once I realized that my dislike for them grew.

But my dislike for them hasn’t been enough to stop using their products. I’ve tried DDG a few times, but I’ve always been dissatisfied with their results.

MudMan ,

I don't have feelings about corporations.

"Loving" or "hating" brands, let alone massive oligarchal conglomerates makes no sense at all. I want them well regulated and split down to reasonable size if necessary. Ideally competing in a well populated marketplace and restricted in their ability to cause damage.

That's not "hate". And it certainly doesn't stop me using Google products and services and judging them based on their quality and performance.

Yes, I am a riot at parties, thank you very much.

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