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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.

haui_lemmy ,

Yeah, google is great if you dont care about your privacy and dont care how much money you spend.

There is absolutely no reason to use google though. For a great experience you have to pay anyway and that you can as well do with someone with someone who hosts nextcloud for you. Added benefit: your data is not harvested and you can expect the terms to stay the same forever.

kautau ,

and you can expect the terms to stay the same forever

Bit of a reach, but I agree with your other points

haui_lemmy ,

Thanks. But if you work with a small hoster, they wont change the terms on you usually. Most of us understand that this is only „legal“, not morally sound.

intensely_human ,

I don’t hate Google

ampersandcastles ,

I hate all capitalist enterprises even if I use them.

foreverandaday ,
@foreverandaday@lemmy.ml avatar

I hate all corporations lol

Nighed ,
@Nighed@feddit.uk avatar

Google spies on me, but actually provides useful services (other than search) for free (ish) in return.

Microsoft want money for everything.

The rest of big tech wants all your data for basically no gain.

I don’t trust Google, but for now the trade seems worth it.

paddirn ,

I wanted to like Google, I bought into the whole ecosystem and still regularly use my gmail account, but they’ve fallen quite far in my eyes. They’ve killed off multiple features I used extensively, Search, the thing they should be good at, just isn’t as dependable as it used to be, I don’t trust using Chrome anymore, and the company overall just seems like a pale reflection of its former self. I just don’t trust them as a company. Not as bad as Meta or anything Musk touches, but still bad.

en1gma ,

“Don’t Be Evil”

russjr08 ,

Hate? No, I do not hate Google. I still use a Pixel phone (and photos/assistant on it), my Gmail is still my primary email (I also self-host a few other domains but those are primarily used for automation and a few other one-off things), I subscribe to YouTube Premium, I still utilize my Stadia controller as my primary game controller, I use a Google TV set top box, etc.

I don’t use Search (I use Kagi instead), I don’t use Chrome (Firefox), I don’t really utilize Gemini all that much (I just run ollama for the few times I want to use an LLM).

Really I just use their products that work well for me, and don’t use the ones that don’t. There’s no love/hate about it.

pruwybn ,
@pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I’m pretty neutral towards them. I use Gmail, Drive, and Google News.

kersplomp ,

FWIW I don’t really like tech companies in general. They’re monopolies.

That said, I really admire Google’s environmental policies. I worry a lot about global warming and habitat destruction. They’re doing better than any other tech company on that front.

Other companies will just lie about their emissions. Like Amazon claiming it’s 100% renewable (it’s not even close). Google has been honest and clear with it’s emissions numbers since the beginning. And it has never been afraid to call out when they were wrong. For example, they recently updated their numbers when they realized one of their accounting methods was wrong. No other company has kept themselves as honest as Google on environmental things.

It’s a big company with 170k employees. I can name a million examples of it doing shitty things. Like shutting down Inbox. But the environment is far more important to me than some product I didn’t pay for.

FeelThePower ,
@FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

The only thing I honestly don’t hate from them is YouTube, which I still use often. But I hate how they treat it now, so they lose points there. And Gboard too, but they seem to have abandoned updating it sadly.

Carighan ,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

WDYM? It seems to update every 1-2 days on the beta channel for me, always fine-tuning some language or another. Do they not push updates to non-beta any more?

FeelThePower ,
@FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Well, I’m on iOS

FartsWithAnAccent ,
@FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io avatar

I hate how shit their search is now

Carighan ,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

There’s this study that attempts to quantify this effect, at least.

Crabhands ,
@Crabhands@lemmy.ml avatar

I don’t think you understood the question :)

VirtualOdour ,

Google have done a lot of great things and run some really vital projects that have benefitted the world. Anyone that refuses to acknowledge that is not coming at things honestly.

Carighan ,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah that’s my take on it, too.

Plus they’re far too big for “Google” to be a useful entity in discussions. The Google C-suites? The CEO? The Maps team? The Mail team? The support for end-user customers? Need to be more specific, because I bet the Mail team is bigger than some competing companies in their entirety.

eatthecake ,

Today google search turned on dark mode and trendimg searches against my will once again, makimg me google how to turn them off again.

It’s annoying.

Kalkaline ,
@Kalkaline@leminal.space avatar

I dislike a lot of what Google has done to their product and how people have screwed up searches with SEO nonsense. Recipes are a prime example of what I dislike about Google. Gemini is way less useful than the Assistant used to be. I’m still waiting for Microsoft to dip their toes back into the cell phone market or see some FOSS alternatives to Android/iOS that are supported by service providers. Ultimately I just have to put up with it.

originalucifer ,
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

i used to love google.. ive been around since the beginning and used many of their products.

it feels like a friend or family member thats slid into serious meth or other drug use... you can only stick around attempting to help them for so long. at some point you know you have to cut your losses or be further dragged into their destruction.

when they dropped the 'dont be evil' was right around the time i also realized they dont actually support their products, and kill them on a whim. i jumped ship ~2012 when they started fuckin around with google voice and had no real ambition with G+. .

Balinares ,

They didn’t drop the don’t be evil thing. It’s still right there in the code of conduct where it always was, they just moved it to the conclusion of the document so it’s the last thing that remains with you. See for yourself: abc.xyz/investor/google-code-of-conduct/

The supposed removal is a perfect example of the outrage-bait headlines I’m discussing in another comment.

unknowing8343 ,

There’s a whole Wikipedia page covering the motto drop. And yes, it was an ugly move deserving of all the bad press.

corvi ,

From literally the first paragraph stating it’s still there.

The original motto was retained in Google’s code of conduct, now a subsidiary of Alphabet. Between April 21st and May 4th of 2018, the motto was removed from the code of conduct’s preface and retained in its last sentence.[9]

BearOfaTime ,

So it’s dropped from the motto?

Yes, they dropped it.

It was a Warrant canary

criitz ,

They definitely stopped living by that mantra at the same time. It may exist as a footnote to this giant code of conduct but it hasn’t been their MO in over a decade. The reaction is justified.

Hawke ,

right there […] where it always was.

they just moved it to the conclusion

Make up your mind, which one is it?

bamboo ,

If it’s any consolation, they haven’t killed Google Voice. They haven’t updated it since 2012, but it’s still around.

BearOfaTime ,

I get updates a couple times a year.

But it hasn’t changed

TexasDrunk ,

I loved them for a long time and was around since the beginning as well. When they opted everyone into Buzz without their consent I became real cautious about what I share with them. I still use some services, and even used Stadia when they had it. However, I’m ready for them to turn anything off at any time and don’t share any info with them that I wouldn’t want public.

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