Saying Goodbye to Google Services

The author says he is starting to leave Google services because he sees the company as advertising-first, with inconsistent administration, weak support, and products that often feel counterintuitive. His own priority is interface quality, simplicity, and support, so he sees his goals as in conflict with Google’s.

He says even Gmail has become hard to use for him, and he is now moving his most important service, email, out of Google. He wants to place email with Apple eventually, but only if Apple offers custom domain hosting.

Reading notes

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• Google is described as an advertising company first and foremost.
• The administrative interfaces are said to be arbitrarily located, named, and designed.
• He says Google’s incentive model depends on knowing more about users and passing that information to advertisers.
• He criticizes Google for poor design, counterintuitive UI and UX, and little support.
• He says Google launches products with different interfaces and domains, then changes or disables them when it wants.
• He treats this as a conflict between his priorities and Google’s priorities.
• He says Gmail itself feels like a wreck to him, though he still sees uptime, speed, and email search as strengths.
• He is moving email out of Google and wants to host it with Apple if custom domains become available.
• He says he will keep using Google for website-related tools such as webmaster tools, analytics, and SEO.