I dislike Google. Nay, I hate Google. I used to think some (not all) of their products were cool. I drank the kool-aid and it blinded me. I used their search engine, Google Talk, Chrome, Android, and more. I never looked outside their realm at what others were doing or what was available.

I still use Google Talk to this day but worry about what Google really has planned for Hangouts… so much for standards.

Hangouts is the new “thing”. It’s seemingly built on XMPP but Google is going down their own road since they claim they couldn’t do what they really wanted with normal XMPP. While normal XMPP clients can still connect who knows what Google will do further down the road… we have to play by their rules.

Chrome… where did you go wrong?

Chrome used to be fast. It used to be stable. It used to just work. For some it still does, for others not so much. For me it used to crash often (on multiple systems), hang, and use an excessive amount of memory/CPU.

What finally tipped me over the edge and caused me to move on was my crashing Samsung Galaxy Note and the atrocious battery life it had.

My phone would not last an entire day even without usage. I had to work to make it last longer, or remember to have a charger/battery with me. This isn’t how having a smartphone should be. Could I have upgraded to yet another newer Android phone? Sure, but over time the same thing could have likely happened again. I looked elsewhere.

It’s ultimately not about us, it’s about what is best for Google.

Google likes to portray themselves as being for the users but if you take a step back and think “hey, they have to make money” you really see that it comes at a cost… and sometimes what you get is just not worth it.

Is this blog post about how you should give up Google? No.

I just urge you to look at what you use and what other options exist. Explore. Look at things that may improve your workflow. Don’t be a slave to your Google usage.