It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally cut Google (well mostly, there’s no good alternative to YouTube) out of my life.
I had been using the Chrome browser since it was first released. I’m not going to lie, it has been a great browser and still is. I just wanted to get out of the Google ecosystem, for no other reason than I just don’t like the company.
Right now, I’ve got two browsers installed (three technically, Edge is still there and I do use it sparingly); FireFox and Brave.
I hadn’t used FireFox since ditching it for Chrome many years ago. It was a good browser back then, and it’s even better now. It’s the browser I’m using for personal use.
The browser I’m using for site related stuff, because it’s easier for me to have different bookmark setups, is the Brave browser.
I tired Brave back when it first released, and didn’t care for it. I’ve recently decided to give it another go, and now I’m absolutely loving it. Of course that could be that it’s so familiar, since it is now Chromium based. That means it has the feel of Chrome, and the ability to use Chrome extensions, but it’s more privacy focused and honestly I believe just a better browser than Google’s Chrome.
Brave blocks ads, cookies, scripts, and trackers for all sites or just the ones you choose. If you’re blocking ads but want to support your favorite sites or content creators, you can add funds to your BAT (Basic Attention Token) wallet and tip them that way (note that this site is a Brave verified publisher). You can learn more about BAT’s here.
Highly recommend you guys and gals check out Brave and start using it, especially if you’re currently Chrome users. You don’t lose anything by switching, but you get a better version of the browser you’ve been using.
As for search engine, I’ve mostly used Google for years but I’ve also used Microsoft’s Bing for a few years as well. I’ve now fully switched over to Bing, although if you’re concerned about privacy or whatever, DuckDuckGo is also very good.
I’ve read for years about people who don’t think Bing is a good search engine, or not as good as Google. “Google gives better results,” some folks claim. I’ve found Bing to give similar, just as good results as Google. Better even.
I like the look, and feel, of Bing. Not just simple searches, but also searching for images.
Of course Bing has another positive to it that Google doesn’t offer, rewards for using the service. You log in with your Microsoft account, and you can earn Microsoft Rewards points for searching with Bing and doing a few activities like quizzes and polls.
You can cash in those points on sweepstakes, or better gift cards. Some accounts, like mine, have $5 Amazon gift cards. You can get Xbox Gift Cards, Xbox Game Pass, or Xbox Live Gold. Target, Wal-Mart, Burger King, and/or Starbucks are amongst the other gift cards that you could potentially cash in points for. And the good thing is, it really doesn’t take much effort to get the points, and they add up to be cashed out relatively quickly.
Definitely recommend switching to Bing, or at least incorporating it, if for no other reason than the Microsoft Rewards program.
Pretty happy with the break away from Google. I still have a Gmail account, but for the site I use Zoho and have two Outlook accounts (a site one and a personal one), so my need for Gmail is diminishing although it is vastly superior to Outlook. I would switch from YouTube, but the alternatives aren’t that great mostly because the creators I follow are all on YouTube.
And it helps that my second Chromebook has died, so next time I get a laptop I’ll make sure it’s a real one and won’t have to use Chrome on it either.
Goodbye Google, you won’t be missed.
Vortainment 