Life without Google?

Two different articles came to be today, from completely different sources and interfaces, which shared an interesting common theme: Life without Google.

From Wired News: Google Users: I Can Quit Anytime:

Six days a week, Shari Thurow spends copious amounts of time conducting searches on Google. But each Saturday, she makes a point of observing a "Google-free day."

The rules are simple: Use any search engine except for Google. In practice, however, the policy is surprisingly difficult to implement.

From one of my favorite blogs: Googlefasting

Chris Pirillo is trying to spend two weeks (originally just one week) without using any of Google’s many services. Here’s his account of this digital adventure:

* The Mission Statement. “I’ve been growing increasingly concerned over how Google is starting to do more... and the world is just letting it do more without asking questions (because most users trust the brand blindly). Google is everywhere. I want it to be everywhere, but I also don’t want it to be everywhere – because that’s very scary.”

* Day 1. “Still can’t figure out how to work MSN Search. The results are just... not relevant. I must be doing something wrong.”

This was interesting to me, because in my first blog post ever, back in November 2004, I was already talking about how much I depend on Google on a daily basis, and the potential for future Google withdrawal issues:

I noticed recently that I google for programming / utility / OS / etc-related information all the time. I mean, I've known this for a while... I think I probably do at least 10-50 google searches a day on average. If they changed to a pay service at some point (can't see that happening, but I've pondered it), I'd probably get depressed and resort to (gasp) books and real people for information.

It was nice to see that other people are already bravely trying this out, so I don't have to. :) Also, coincidentally, I was just thinking within the past few days "I wonder what ever happened to Lockergnome" (an email list I used to subscribe to, back in the late 1990s, which had computer tips, tricks, software reviews, etc.).

As it turns out, Chris Pirillo (from the "Googlefasting" post above) was the author of that Lockergnome email list. Small world. He's got a blog here, which I've now subscribed to. Cool!