I’ve been meaning to minimize Google’s ability to track me and my visitors for quite a while now, but this post about Google+ which I stumbled across recently came as an appropriately timed reminder.
I’d like to announce that every site I remember running (it’s conceivable I forgot ones on free hosting similar to GitHub Pages) is now free of Google Libraries API and Google Analytics (I use a private Piwik install for stats now and I can assure you I’ve dialed data retention way down). I’ve never had a need to use reCAPTCHA even back when they weren’t owned by Google.
I still need to find alternatives to FeedBurner, FriendFeed (owned by Facebook), and Google Docs and find time to replace GMail and Google Talk with stuff I host myself, but it’s a good start.
(You never really realize how much Google knows about you until you start migrating yourself off them)
In the interest of full disclosure, here’s an up-to-date list of all 3rd-party dependencies in my sites which could theoretically be reworked for abuse:
- blog.ssokolow.com
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- ProjectWonderful Ad
- FriendFeed sidebar widget
- Flattr buttons (Live counts require external requests)
- FeedBurner feed analytics
- Vanished FanFic Archive
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- Fic downloads are currently served separately from Dropbox.com
- FeedBurner feed analytics
- GitHub Pages: QuickTile
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- Flattr button
- GitForked Button
- GitHub Pages: The Procrastinator’s Timeclock
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- Flattr Button
- GitForked Button
- Gender-Bending Index
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- FeedBurner feed analytics
- Fanfiction Story Ideas
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- FeedBurner feed analytics
My Sites: Now 100% Google-free (FeedBurner excepted) by Stephan Sokolow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Hi Stephan,
I’m on the same path as you, regarding moving everything away from Google.
As part of that process, I’ve been using the open-source RoundCube client (http://roundcube.net) as my GMail alternative. It’s been up and running for a while now and I’m very happy with it.
I installed the latest Beta (0.8) and am using the new ‘Larry’ skin. There are quite a few 3rd party plug-ins available and I expect it’s straightforward to create your own.
Good luck with the ‘cleansing’ process. 😉
Kevin
Thanks. It looks interesting and making sure it meets my needs will probably be a lot simpler than either squashing down Thunderbird’s memory usage or writing my own IMAP WebUI.
By the way, if you need a replacement for Google Reader, Tiny Tiny RSS looks promising and it also runs on the standard LAMP stack.
That just leaves either a web based NNTP client for talking to GMane or a plugin for RoundCube to make it at least an order of magnitude better at dealing with mailing lists than any other e-mail client I’ve ever seen.
Hello!
can you recommend a long-lived e-mail provider for those considering to make their lives as google-free as possible?
i got used to having all the features that gmail has, esp. imap and pop, of course. the only thing that doesn’t seem all that important to me is storage space; after years i use 700MB of my 10GB.
it would have to be long-lived, offering imap (or at least pop) for use with a mail client, and compatible with everyday electronic communication; that includes google (i had a sad incident with vmail.me, which proved impossible to use because gmail blocks it).
i opened an account with inbox.com but i’m not sure about them.
Sorry. My needs sound similar to yours, but I never bothered to search for a long-lived provider.
My e-mail has been forwarded through ssokolow.com since before GMail existed, so I’m just going to set up a mail system on one of my VPSes and take over handling my own e-mail.
It’ll also give me the chance, if I can ever find the time, to implement a nifty automatic blacklist/whitelist scheme I’ve dreamed up which involves rewriting outbound message headers so that every e-mail anybody ever sees from me is keyed to only accept replies from the intended recipient… with an “I’m a human who made a mistake. Let my message through.” link in the “bounce” message.
(I’ve also been treating my e-mail aliases like revokable API keys for ages. Hence why I’ve never needed GMail’s spam filters.)