[POOF] What if Google Disappeared? - Comments Page 1

What if you bought a Neatdesk to clear all your clutter of paper documents and suddenly Neat doesn't support your Legacy product anymore, so will OSX El Capitan, it quits working. There solution is to use their new software and give them complete control of your vital documents. They only want a small ransom.... er .. Fee to keep you documents from coming to any harm. Would you trust a company like that?

Although I no longer use Google for my searches -- I use either duckduckgo or startpage -- I rely on GMail, Google Voice, Google Maps and Youtube.

Many months ago I started backing up my GMail with Upsafe GMail Backup, just in case.

Although it doesn't do exactly what Google Voice offers, I found an interesting multi-platform voice and text app called TextNow that is also free and very reliable.

Still, I'd rather not have Google go *poof.*

Alternatives to Google? Never have a single point of failure. Bob preaches backups, backups, and backups. That has to include backup services for critical functions.

DuckDuckGo for Search.
Outlook.com for email, or my own domain host's email program.
DropBox or OneDrive for cloud storage and collaboration.

Funny you mention: "YES... spelling, punctuation, grammar and proper use of UPPER/lower case are important!" doesn't this also apply to you? I see this in your article about twice: "But the Resolv hardware: instead of Revolv, oh well, we are only human!

EDITOR'S NOTE: There's a difference between a brain malfunction and a spelling error. :-)

Umatilla is 181.5 miles from Portland according to, of course, Google.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Sorry, I meant to say Oregon, not Portland. Fixed!

Please be aware that Google's services can be disabled for anyone's account, as this and many other forums have pointed out:

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3f0qbv/psa_google_is_deleting_google_accounts_with_no/

Please take a copy of your data today:

https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout?utm_source=ob&utm_campaign=takeout

You're about 100 years too late to worry about Google suddenly disappearing. E.M. Forster wrote a short story, entitled "The Machine Stops" (dare I suggest Google it?!) I read it in my youth and never forgot it; now, although we're not quite there yet, the story seems prescient, if not downright ominous.

I think I have backups for most things Google that I use. All emails are saved locally. While I usually use Google search there are many others available. I still prefer Firefox so chrome is not an issue for me. Google drive I use for backup NOT as the sole repository for any files. I do, in fact, use Google Voice for free phone service. This I would miss. But what I will miss most is the Google Wallet that will no longer be available after 1 June of this year. I have used this extensively to transfer money easily and quickly to other family and friends who had a Wallet Card. I don't know of another service that works as smoothly or quickly as Wallet did.

Thank you for this article, and all the others previously an future (paying forward). Thank you also for the WINDOWS ebook, which I purchased a few days ago.
Getting on in age (72), I do find reading small print harder and harder. I am using a Samsung pad4, as my main tool. The majori type of Web sites, links, emails, photos, etc. I CAN ZOOM, except yours. Once I click on your link to your latest article, I can no longer zoom. To give you an idea how small your print appears, I give you the last 4 words of the first line, ......then I got thinking,. That makes for some pretty small print, hard to read. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm sure that you have the answer to my dilemma. A simple click, like on the kindle, and voila, your text is scaled up/down, and your page count goes up. BTW, I know, you wanted only mail pertaining to this article (since my example contains the last 4 words of line 1), I consider it as pertaining to this posting. Your link to questions ...click here... ,nothing happened. Appreciate your work and effort. Sincerely Yours, Ron

Hi Bob:

I have always felt safer using an email client on my computer rather than web-based email. Also, DuckDuckGo for search is always a better bet to avoid being tracked. I would miss YouTube for its amazing selection of music - both classical and pop - but could live without it.

I do all my backups "in house" so if Google went "belly up" I would be just fine. I have always followed the rule "don't put all your eggs in one basket" - guess I'm a bit old-fashioned, but it works just fine for me!

IAAL. No competent lawyer would store a will (or an important contract) in the cloud. These depend on the authenticity of a handwritten signature. The physical documents go in a vault that each lawyer has.

With storage as cheap as it is today, I installed a 4Tb drive in my desktop, where I back up everything, and particularly things that are in the cloud.

Well for one thing, it is good to regularly use Thunderbird to have a local copy of one's emails.
Yet if Google went POOF, it could be said of ISP providers, such as TELUS, Domain name suppliers eg GoDaddy.

All these are just "SUPPOSE". I can almost assure that Google would be the last one to quit. They would be laying on the ground supplying service when every body else die. Don't look for Google to go dark and hold your breath. Everybody in your family would expire and Google would still be going.

As you can see I have a non-google email address as well as gmail address. I am in Canada. With the Revolv shutdown I wonder when Google will shut down Nest since it is not as profitable as it was when they acquired it! As backup I will simply keep my old programmable thermostat that my NEST replaced. It is not Internet of Things capable so it does NOT depend on any link to any company on or off the NET. I will put that back in service. It worked very well for many years.
I was interested in and have used auto away and remote control but I can easily live without them again.

The 2 most inspirational recommendations in the posts are 1)Avoiding Single Point Failures, and 2)Use of Thunderbird for localizing web-mail.
I think we would all miss a few Google services if they went poof!

If Google disappeared, it would quickly be replaced -- faster than most would expect. The need would drive the replacement. And former Google employees would create the startups with easy venture capital money. As if we would just roll over and just say, "Well, that was fun while it lasted." Life would go on. Just ask the dinosaurs.

Don't use goggle. Never have. Never will.
I prefer NOT to spied on!

Live without Youtube!? You're joking right? And how will I see debates from Australia or a debate between Prof Lennox and Dawkins at Oxford U?
Or all the music from Jesusculture and Hillsong?

What if Google disappeared without warning:

I would imagine there would be mass suicides/ attempted suicides of people that life's revolve around Google.

After great debate and mass demonstrations people will slowly start using other web search engines, email providers, and find alternative to everything that Google now offers.

In the distant future old people sitting in their rocking chairs will Fondly tell their grandchildren about "Google". Of course it will also be used as a answer on the jeopardy game show.

Does anyone remember MySpace???