I have been a Google fan since they released their first search engine around 1999. It blew every other search engine out of the water (AltaVista, Lycos, AskJeeves, etc.).
I never jumped on the Gmail bandwagon, but when Google Apps came out in 2006 with support for private domain email, I jumped right in as a beta user. When Google released Pages and Numbers a few years later, I created a skunkworks project for my sales team using it because it allowed us to simultaneously view, edit and update a shared spreadsheet which we used to track sales.
Over the years, I became even more of a Google fan. I used Google Voice. I bought two Google Chromebooks. I had an actual Google Cell Phone (before google sold their phone to Motorola). I used Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Keep, Google Photos, Google Music, Google Podcasts and other services which have since been discontinued.
Overall, I’ve been pleased with Google’s functionality and flexibility and pricing.
However, I despise their tracking and marketing.
Supposedly, as a business customer, I had more privacy and fewer ads than free Gmail users. I think that was true.
Yesterday, I deleted all of my Google Accounts and services.
I did this because I have transitioned to a nearly all Apple infrastructure. I use a MacBook, an iPad and an iPhone. I’ve learned to use Apple mail and found it to be an acceptable alternative to Google App Mail.
I wanted to keep things simple. Apple is simple. And I appreciate their privacy policies and security measure far more than Google’s.
So I left Google because it was no longer serving my needs and I wanted a simplified, unified tech infrastructure.
The icing on the cake is that the anti-consumer part of me loves that I will no longer be incessantly tracked for marketing and have my data sold to the highest bidder.
Adios Google. It was good knowing you.
Update 10/14/22: Other than tweaking a few settings and preferences, I have had no issues with this transition. It has made my life easier and better. Occasionally I miss the zooming feature that shows street level images on Google maps, but not enough to let google track my movements. My car has Apple carplay which is extremely helpful when I need directions