I used to be a fan of the Google company. I used to think of this as a future career opportunity, as I’ve received a number of invitations to apply for a job with them.

But I am no longer a fan.

Recently, the company has in my opinion turned to the “evil” side; they probably became worse than Microsoft ever was and the “do no evil” principle is long gone.

So what has changed? In my perception, Google:

  • Is much more focused on making money now, than making technology happen.
  • Instead of making cool technology, it tries more and more to be a “hipster” thing and following the classic old 80-20 rule: get 80% of the users with 20% of the effort. Think of the GMail changes that received so much hate and the various services it shuts down (Code search, Reader, Googlecode downloads) and how much Google is becoming a walled garden.
  • Google leverages its search market dominance as well as Android to push their products that don’t perform as good as desired. Plus for example. There is a lot of things I like about plus. In particular when you use it as a “blog” type of conversation tool instead of a site for sharing your private data, then it’s much better than Facebook because of the search function and communities. (And I definitely wouldn’t cry if a Facebook successor emerges). But what I hate is how Google tries hard to leverage their Android and YouTube power to force people to Plus. And now they are spreading even further, into TV (ChromeCast) and ISP (Google Fiber) markets.
  • Hangups, oops, Hangouts is another such example. I’ve been using XMPP for a long time. At some point, Google started operating an XMPP server, and it would actually “federate” with other servers, and it worked quite nicely. But at some point they decided they need to have more “hipster” features, like ponies. Or more likely, they decided that they want all these users to use Plus. So now they are moving it away from an open standard towards a walled garden. But since 90% of my use is XMPP outside of Google, I will instead just move away from them. Worse.
  • Reader. They probably shut this down to support Currents and on the long run move people over to Plus, too. Fortunately here, there now exist a number of good alternatives such as Feedly. But again: Google failed my needs.
  • Maps. Again an example where they moved from “works good” to “hipster crap”. The first thing the new maps always greets me with is a gray screen. The new 3D view looks like an earthquake happened, without offering any actual benefit over the classic (and fast) satellite imagery. Worse. In fact my favorite map service right now is an OpenStreetmap offline map.
  • Google Glass is pure hipsterdom crap. I have yet to see an actual use case for it. People use it to show off, and that’s about it. If you are serious about photos, you use a DSLR camera with a large objective and sensor. But face it: it’s just distraction. If you want productive, it’s actually best to turn of all chat and email and focus. Best productivity tip ever: Turn off email notifications. And turn of chat, always-on and Glass, too.
  • Privacy. When privacy-aware US providers actually recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States, then maybe it’s time to look out for services in countries that value freedom higher than spying. I cannot trust Google on keeping my data private.

We are living in worrisome times. The U.S.A., once proud defenders of freedom, have become the most systematic spies in the world, even on their own people. The surveillance in the Eastern Bloc is no match for this machinery built the last decade. Say hello to Nineteen Eighty-Four. Surveillance, in a mixture of multi-state and commercial surveillance has indeed become omnipresent. Wireless sensors in trash cans track your device MACs. Your email is automatically scanned both by the NSA and Google. Your social friendships are tracked by Facebook and your iPhone.

I’m not being paranoid. These things are real, and it can only be explained with a “brainwashing” with both the constantly raised fear of terror (note that you are much more likely to be killed in a traffic accident or by a random gun crazy in the U.S.A. than by terrorists) and the constant advertisement for useless technology such as Google Glass. Why have so many people stopped fighting for their freedom?

So what now? I will look into options to move away stuff from Google (that is mostly, my email – although I’d really like to see a successor to email finally emerge). Maybe I can find a number of good services located e.g. in Switzerland or Norway (who still seem to hold freedom in high respect - neither the UK nor Germany are an alternative these days). And I hope that some politicians will have the courage to openly discuss whether it may be necessary to break up Google into “Boogles” (Baby-Googles), just as Reagan did with AT&T. But unfortunately, todays politicians are really bad at such decisions, in particular when it might lower their short-run popularity. They are only good at making excuses.