By Berin Szoka & Adam Thierer
As we noted in our intro to this ongoing series, Google’s tenth anniversary has passed with Googlephobia reaching new heights of hysteria.
But is Google really too big and dangerous, or are people just too lazy to find other alternatives to each of the wonderful services that Google offers? If one is truly paranoid about the firm’s supposed dominance, it doesn’t take much effort to live a Google-free life. To prove it, we set out to find alternatives to each of the services that Google provides. After awhile, we got a little tired of compiling alternatives in each category and just provided links for the additional choices at your disposal. It’s tough to see what the fuss is about with the cornucopia of choices at our disposal. If you don’t like Google, then just don’t use it or any of its services. The choice is yours.
In each case, we’ve listed Google first, even though Google may not be the market leader (e.g., Google’s relatively unknown social network Orkut).
Search Engines
- Microsoft Live Search
- Yahoo!
- Ask.com
- AltaVista
- Cuil
- others: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines
- Google Gmail
- MSN Hotmail
- Apple .Mac/MobileMe
- Yahoo!
- AOL
- others: www.emailaddresses.com/email_web.htm
Encyclopedia
- Knol (Google)
- Wikipedia
- Citizendium
- Microsoft Encarta
- Britannica Online
- World Book Online
- others: www.surfnetkids.com/encyclopedia.htm
Instant Messaging
- Google Talk
- Yahoo Messenger
- Windows Live Messenger (Microsoft)
- AOL AIM
- Jabber
- others: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging#User_base
Web Browsers
- Chrome (Google)
- Firefox (Mozilla Foundation)
- Internet Explorer (Microsoft)
- Safari (Apple)
- Opera
- Flock
- others: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers
Social Networks
- Orkut (Google) – (not popular in the U.S.)
- Myspace
- Bebo
- Friendster
- LiveJournal
- others: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Social_network_service
Mapping
- Google Maps
- Microsoft Live Search Maps
- MapQuest
- WikiMapia
- Google Earth
- Virtual Earth (Microsoft)
- others: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_map_services
Mobile Search / Portal Services
Video Hosting
- YouTube (Google)
- Google Video
- Flickr (Yahoo!)
- Yahoo Video
- Vimeo
- Photobucket
- BlipTV
- others: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_sharing_websites
Photohosting
- Picasa (Google)
- Flickr (Yahoo!)
- Apple .Mac/MobileMe
- Photobucket
- Snapfish
- Shutterfly
- Imageshack
- AOL Pictures
- others: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_sharing#Online_photo_sharing_websites
Document / Spreadsheet Creation
- Google Docs
- Microsoft Office
- OpenOffice
- ThinkFree Office
- EditGrid
- NumSum
- Zoho Sheet
- Zoho Writer
- ajaxWrite
- Glide Write
- others: www.editgrid.com/user/siulung/Web-based_Spreadsheets_Comparison_Matrix
Online File Storage
- Google Docs
- Windows Live SkyDrive (Microsoft)
- Apple .Mac/MobileMe
- Mozy
- Buzzword (Adobe)
- Xdrive
- Box.net
- others: http://www.listible.com/list/online-file-storage
Blog hosting services
- Blogger (Google)
- WordPress
- Windows Live Spaces (Microsoft)
- Skyrock (based in France, but bigger than WordPress and almost as big as Blogger)
- LiveJournal
- Note: many social networking services also have a blogging component
- others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_hosting_service#Developer-hosted
RSS blog feed aggregators
- Google Reader
- My MSN
- My Yahoo!
- NewsGator Online
- Bloglines
- FeedBucket
- others: dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Internet/Clients/WWW/Feed_Readers/Web_Based
- others: www.newsonfeeds.com/faq/aggregators
WebClipping Services
News Aggregators
- Google News
- Yahoo News
- MSN News & MSNBC (Microsoft)
- News Directory.com
- Reuters
- CNN.com
- Digg
- Topix
- others: news.nettop20.com
- others: newsonfeeds.com/faq/aggregators
Calendar Services
- Google Calendar
- Microsoft Outlook
- Lotus Notes
- Lightning/Sunbird (Mozilla Foundation)
- Apple .Mac/MobileMe
- others: www.calendarzone.com
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.