Leo Babauta, Google and the eelo project

Note: This article was written by eelo contributor Russell Todd

Leo Babauta writes the popular zen habits blog. In a 2010 post “How I Became (Mostly) Google-free in About a Day”, he works step-by-step through an ‘ungoogling’ of his digital life.

His reasons for doing so could be seen even in 2010 — the way that the ever-increasing range of free Google services were just too easy to continuously adopt:

Are we too reliant on Google’s services? As long-time readers know, I love Google’s products and use them daily, as they’re absolutely the best I’ve tried in their categories: Google search, Gmail, Google Chrome browser, Google Reader, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Picasa, mostly.

But is it dangerous to give all our information and to rely so completely on one corporation? Should we be worried? Should we be looking for alternatives? Should we be moving our data out of Google as soon as possible?

Back then he couldn’t foresee how well they would, (using algorithms, not snooping engineers) make use of the huge quantities of data they were obtaining from user activity. From a related post:

Google Docs and Spreadsheets have allowed me to put all my documents online. And yes, I know some people are worried about data privacy, but personally I don’t think Google cares about the things I store in my documents, and what’s more, if for some reason a Google engineer was snooping into my files (of the billions of gigabytes of data they store — a likely scenario) it wouldn’t bring my world crashing down.

And so he proceeds, working through replacements for Search, Gmail, Google Docs etc. At each point finding replacements that were almost as good as the ones he was using. In one day he has almost got himself clear.

The master of changing habits then sums up:

Overall, I haven’t missed the Google services one bit. I really thought it would be harder to make the switch, but it was fast, fairly easy, and without glitches.

The services I’m using are almost as good, and once you get used to them you don’t feel like you’re making a sacrifice.

I need to be clear: I don’t hate Google, nor do I think they’re evil. They make great things, and in general have been more supportive of open standards and open source than other corporations like Microsoft or Apple. But it’s not wise to put everything you have into one corporation, nor do I like commercializing my entire life. It was time for a change.

I also believe that if you give someone power, eventually they’ll abuse it. It’s just a matter of time. How much power should we give one corporation?

I don’t know if I’ll stay (mostly) Google-free, or if I’ll eventually head back to Gmail or one of the other services. But I do know that I like using multiple services — putting my eggs in different baskets — and I like having fewer ads in my life. And I also know that it’s possible to get out of Google’s clutches.

… and then, 6 months down the track comes this admission of reality:

Update: This was a temporary experiment that lasted about 6 months. I am no longer Google-free. My apologies!

This is not written to knock Leo, or his efforts. Indeed his concerns show significant foresight. But it demonstrates the real difficulty that lies in breaking out of an immensely encircling ecosystem. While it may be true that accessing alternate software is only “one click away”, for those entrenched, breaking free is a bigger project entirely.

The public-interest eelo project has the same aims as Leo did in 2010. And with equal, or more, determination. It’s starting at a more fundamental level — the mobile phone operating system — and building up from there. It’s the work of more than a day, and so it’s looking for your support.