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| Author | Pulled the plug on Google. (Read 705 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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wove
1024 MB  Posts: 1363 
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on: November 17, 2025, 18:33
One of my New Year's resolutions was to close my online accounts. I wanted to keep my dotMac account that I have had since OS 9 days, but the rest needed to go. Some accounts were easy I had stopped using them long ago, many I had gotten just out of curiosity, and some I am not even sure how I ended up with them and a few I am not even sure they are even going concerns anymore. Today I closed the last one and the toughest to get away from, because I used it a lot. I have had a google account since I got a "gmail" invitation. I have long used it for sign-ins to forums and for purchasing from companies I did not expect to deal with very often. A few years back dotMac enabled "hide my email" feature, which meant I did not need a throw away email address any more. The last feature of Google I was using was subscribing to YouTube channels, but over time YouTube has become just an advertising platform, and even channels I enjoyed become riddled with ads which were major distractions, destroying much of the value and enjoyment of watching. So anyway this morning after giving one final check making sure I would not loose access to something I need, I closed down my Google account. Overall I think it will be fine, but inspire of checking and double checking I am sure I ended up overlooking something essential that I will have to make efforts to recover. |
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #1 on: November 18, 2025, 12:15
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... (changed my mind about that one, too)
Last Edit: January 11, 2026, 13:50 by 68040
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ShinobiKenobi
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256 MB Posts: 362 System 7 fan
Reply #2 on: November 19, 2025, 09:59
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I agree that social media is a scourge. I deleted my Twitter account after the (now world's first trillionaire) **** bought the company. I tried to delete my Facepalm account once, but failed. They make it next to impossible. When I discovered years later, my account never got deleted. I am thinking about trying to delete it again. I really only use Google (YouTube, Gmail, search engine, drive), reddit, and old-fashioned internet message boards. I also have a couple personal websites, on which I'm free to put whatever I want. I also have a smart phone. I hate cell phones, but I begrudgingly have to admit that they're useful in emergencies, but I hate having to take them with me every time I go places. It's just a tracking device. I would love to go back to a landline phone. If you tried to call emergency services on an old-fashioned Tracfone, would it work? I remember hearing something about their towers no longer supporting the old kind. Is that true? I don't want to call emergency services just to try it. But if it would work just fine, then I'll be happy to leave my smart phone home and take my old Tracfone with me, since it doesn't have a GPS.
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #3 on: November 19, 2025, 13:29
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Well, it depends how old your phone is. They are switching off more and more of the lower frequencies, because emergency services are complaining that the advance of wireless services encroach on their bandwidth. So they want to make room for them in the "vintage" section of the spectrum. Landlines, too, become antique. Phone booths are pretty much non-existing these days. Quite often I think we are not supposed to be able to chose anymore. Like with the advance of state mandated digital currencies. Money with a given expiration date, and limits on where you allowed to spend it. And the Digital ID for the Internet will turn the use of social media platform into an act of public confession. We're marching headlong into the brave new world - and keep congratulating us on our smarts all along the way.
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023
Reply #4 on: November 20, 2025, 12:51
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Congratulation, wove! That's amazing - I find Google is the hardest one to let go. Not because of the search engine or Maps but Gmail in my case. I had signed up back in the mid 2000s when it was all new & hip and since used it, so it's probably my registered e-mail for a gazillion services. So while I've moved to privacy-respecting posteo, I haven't been able to cut off the light on Gmail. I intend to do so finally, but it's changing one registration at a time ... May I ask, you stopped using YouTube entirely? Or just the account but you keep watching whatever video interests you?
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #5 on: November 21, 2025, 03:03
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It has only been a short while since I closed my account. I can and do still visit YouTube. Direct links to a video will go directly to the video. I have to search for things I use to subscribe to, but Google being Google still follows you so if I have searched for a channel a couple times, I find that when I visit Youtube, videos from the searched for channels do show up at the top. If I use the clear history item in the browser preferences, I can clear the last hour, and the next visit will be a fresh start. Google's algorithm works well (for Google) with their watch next selections typically close enough to tempt me when I had an account and with the account closed, new visits bring up watch next selections that are mostly just random. Like most socially driven formats, YouTube seems to have degenerated in a least common denominator sort of place. Advertisements appear constantly, and content has degenerated away from information towards opinion. Sometimes I think it is a case of how much mud are you willing to walk through to get to the candy bar on the other side. On the very positive front, I have not had a "junk" email in four days. 
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eelco
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32 MB Posts: 41 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #6 on: January 04, 2026, 09:04
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That is a bold decision to make @wove. How is your experience now, after six weeks? I am in the same boat as Bolkonskij: I use an Android phone so a Google account is necessary to be able do anything more than phone calls and text messages. I have Gmail account, I keep it around as the contact address for the domains I own. Let Google handle all the spam. I am somewhat bound to Microsoft accounts due to my chosen profession. Facebook I have given up years ago, as did more people around me. To me it seems your stance on life and what is important changes when you get older and it puts platforms like Facebook in a different light. I, for one, haven't missed it in the slightest. Apart from WhatsApp (which is mostly peer-enforced as everyone around me uses it) I never indulged in social media. Youtube I only use without a logged in account and using an Adblocker. For me, being able to use an Adblocker and anti-tracking extensions in Firefox is a major reason to stay with Android.
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #7 on: January 04, 2026, 16:21
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Pulling the plug on Google has overall made no real difference. I used a few Google services and for a while I did have an Android tablet. As time went on and habits changed I was down to just using it to keep track of YouTube subscriptions. But over time it seemed YouTube had gotten to the point where you had to watch 3 minutes of advertising in order to watch 5 minutes of videos. While Google says the ads are targeted specifically for you, the reality is the ads are just random invasive fluff of no interest at all. As a side benefit I went from probably watching 10-15 minutes of YouTube videos a day to watching 10-15 minutes a week. That time seems to diminish week by week. My guess is that within a few more months I will only be visiting Youtube to watch a video via some direct link I have come across.
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eelco
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32 MB Posts: 41 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #8 on: January 10, 2026, 21:14
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Sounds like it is a success!
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snes1423
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256 MB Posts: 458 A Man born of Mechina
Reply #9 on: January 11, 2026, 05:20
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i personally have used Vivaldi since 2017 on and off depending on if its supported on my OS or not and it currently has taken a strong stance against the very nature of LLMs and it works with all chrome extensions ive tried it with plus it uses startpage.com
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #10 on: January 11, 2026, 13:50
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My new year's resolution was, not to make any new year's resolutions from here on out. The days of "moral purity" are long behind me. When you're young you tend to see the world in white and black. But mine has turned all grey by now. Maybe its the glasses, but maybe its just the way things really are. Nevertheless, good luck to you Sir!
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