Its Time You Ditched Gmail, Chrome, WMT, GA

[boombap]

If you are still using chrome look into and get an extension called 'disonnect'.

 

[JustUs]

I will stop using chrome today, especially after what I read yesterday that google reads your gmail emails and than gives penalisations based on that, its pretty crazy they do such illegal stuff, but they are so big that they can pretty much anything they want. They can destroy whole large business in matter of seconds if someone there makes decision that the company will no longer in search results. I guess when it comes to google it is always good to be paranoid, because if someone can do something, sooner or later he will do.
Probably onle service from google i just cannot stop using is adsense, because google is monopol and there is no alternative to that.

The problem with Chome is legion. My two biggest gripes are that it turns on your microphone and can turn on your camera; both without your specific approval.

 

[lizmoz]

I know that Google is the #1 giant online and if one can conquer it, it's like robbing a bank.

This being said, fuck Google. (I'm writing this with Chrome, by the way). I love gmail and most of its products, but my times of trying to hide my web properties and activities from it are over.

Better to focus on honing skills to make money with alternative traffic sources. There will be a day when Google falls. And then those skills will really be rewarded. I want to be independent of Google.

 

[tonymu]

I agree with this, ditch ga, ditch chrome, ditch gmail, ditch adsense.. adsense is the tricky one, what is the best altetnative?

 

[hes21]

I haven't found moving to zoho mail too painful. They have an equivalent for almost everything google. The free account is limited to 5 accounts but get referred (PM me if you don't know anyone else) and you'll get another 5, and refer a few people and you can get to 20.

 

[fc-dh]

I call bullshit on this one, like the SEO GOD post your findings/thoughts are based on nothing, what kind of solid proof do you have that Google is really reading your email to see if you buy/sell links did you also do a convo whit yourself like the SEO GOD and got your sites tanked?

This is exactly how myths in IM are created, i really don't think Google is reading/scanning your emails, its simple math.

Google has to build a engine/bot that scans true millions and millions of email per day created by millions of accounts and setup a big datacenter just to provide the power that is needed to have this data-mining operation and for what, what is the payoff? To find a view hundred IMers that buy links?

Not to mention that of Google gets caught spying/reading peoples email the backslash of the news that Google is violating privacy laws again would be so expensive that simple math and economics will tell you that the payoff just isn't worth the risk, their holy shareholders will not stand for that and Google knows that.

That doesn't mean that you should use Gmail for your BH stuff, a real blackhatter never ever use any type of Google product, if you do than you're not a real blackhatter in the first place. just use you domain mail, or buy a domain for the sole purpose of mailing (that is what i have) use the webmail options in Cpanel if you want to have webmail.

 

[gorang]

*Snip*

They only really need to come to BHW, buy a service from a big seller who is using Gmail to correspond with customers and they can destroy the whole network with the data available. They don't need to track millions, but we did have this argument about it being impossible for Google to manually review SERPs and we were wrong before.

I don't have proof of the Gmail, but i'm not willing to risk giving Google the means to do it. However I do have proof that Matt Cutts tracked me down personally and went against his own spam team to completely deindex some of my sites as well as sites that i dont even own. He also tracked my personal history which had nothing to do with blackhat, rampaging through all the webmaster tools accounts i ever logged on.

So yes, I do believe Google is doing underhand things to identify link networks and marketers to penalize. Do you really believe big companies like these care if they break the law to make their job easier if they can cover their backs? Do you think someone like me could honestly go up in court against Google and get anything out of it?

 

[Paper-Boy]

This is why I never rely on serp traffic.

Good thing there are multiple traffic sources that can give you as much traffic as google. But it comes with a price of course.

 

[youssfy]

I came to this thread just after installing Piwik for one of my site

BTW, Chromium is a open-source project and there is one version of chromium which is very similar to Chrome and its free from Google shackles but I don't remember its name

 

[Kralj187]

Honestly I think you're a little paranoid, I don't mean to offend you.

What you're suggesting G could be doing would be illegal. I don't think a company this big would risk being caught out.

Being caught by who? They have everyone on their side. The politician and the big sponsors.

 

[fc-dh]

Being caught by who? They have everyone on their side. The politician and the big sponsors.

That is what the guys at the NSA thought to and then there was mr Snowden, there is a huge risk for Google involved here and that is there net worth and their hole shareholders. Just think of this: if it only takes one man to have a good crackdown on a government runed agency, what do you think a scandal like that would do with a commercial company like Google?

And for what? To catch a view link-buyers that they can find with other cheaper and (business wise) saver methods, the OP doesn't make sense at all, no matter how you look at it.

It only takes one (1) guy with enough info/proof and the willingness to go public to seriously damage of even take down a company like Google, you really think they are going to take that kind of risk just for a view blackhatters? I don't belief that for a second.

 

[Kralj187]

My friend the NSA is working with the same effort and methods they did before. Nothing changed at all...

 

[thejake]

A viable alternative is to keep chrome, gmail, wmt, and analytics, and forestall irrational paranoia by not webspamming or buying links. It makes it easier to preserve your adsense account too, which makes it easier to get your share of the $14 billion google pays out to adsense publishers per year.

 

[royserpa]

Your alternative to Gmail is really not a good option, the main value of Gmail (atleast for me) is great web interface, labels, filters and spam protection.

You would have to build all of that by yourself, which is next to impossible I think.

Obviously theres a next level protection which is you. You can stop spam by simply giving your email to trusted people and trusted places, not to a random squeeze page.

Also, you can create several emails for places you visit, for example i could create a [email protected] for bhw and so on. And its not that hard to see who is spamming after you implement this.

Also, if you dont want to do that, you can try other email services out there.

 

[BusinessMagnet]

I have already stopped using Web Master Tools and Google Analytics for all my blogs. It's been more than 6 months I haven't even touched it.

 

[OrangeNRG]

Yes. Avoid everything Google and increase your chances of success. Don't even search on Google. Just use Bing/Yahoo

 

[tnhomestead]

For the nay contentsayers here, have you even looked at Googles privacy policy and TOS? They can look and use your info anytime -- its not illegal and you agree to it. Here are a few excerpts.

We use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content - like giving you more relevant search results and ads.

If they do not have scripts to see what your sending, how do they tailor results based on Gmail content? And here is another one

We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Google if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:

• meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
• enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations.
• detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues.

If that loophole isnt enough to drive the USS Enterprise through, what is? If you read their policies, they even can use data and information that you upload to and i quote again

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones

So if you still think the Big G cant/wont/doesnt look at email as needed or wanted, I wish I trusted people as much as you do. For me the bottom line is if someone can legally do something, they probably will and do.
I lost my Youtube -- 3 videos, all by me, all 100% my content -- 2 were of me riding my tractor. I am now banned for violating community guidelines -- with no notice or warning. Not even a reason was given. To me not trusting Google is the same as buying fire insurance, I dont think a fire will start but better safe than sorry.

Sorry about the length if you get this far!

 

[edgematch]

Just a quick note: maybe most of you know. Send some emails through gmail. Write about (hmmm, let's say) air conditioners. Soon, you will see adsense ads related with air conditioners on the websites you are visiting.

Now, for the replacements:

chrome: Firefox is ok. Or opera. Or even annoying ie. But never ever chrome.
piwik sucks. kills your cpu. I prefer clicky (although a paid option)
mail : yahoo is super good with its tabbed interface.
storage: dropbox is 100 times better.

I am saying "An IMer should never use wmt, chrome and ga" for years. Even created thread for that. Glad some members are realizing what that means. Funny thing is that, our optimistic members with all their goodwill say "no google is not such a company".

yes it is not... never it was...

Just wait a bit more. The prince will come and kiss you soon...and the fairy tale will be over...

 

[srinu0812]

If you are still using chrome look into and get an extension called 'disonnect'.

Thanks for this. May be it's disconnect. Just installed.

 

[theRevolt]

I would agree that I would not send any of the blackhat stuff with gmail etc. But where is a good alternative? I actually use their docs for working on stuff so for the other platforms you need to download the file edit, re-upload.. kind of defeats the purpose. I am sure we all know not to use GA if you are doing blackhat stuff but like someone else mentioned self hosted pretty much only an option if you have a tracking server, but then again ppl would be able to connect your properties even easier.

Just separate your blackhat stuff from your personal etc.. Other than that we know everybody tracks you already for other purposes.