OK, so I didn’t completely free myself from Googles’ grip. But I did manage to migrate at least 75%. I could meet a higher number if:
- I could find a replacement web calendar that supports Outlook 2010 synchronization (for a single work calendar)
- I was willing to let old forum posts that have linked pictures die with “image not found” for other readers.
So the bottom line is I am still using Google Calendar (for a single calendar), Google Talk (for a few friends instant messaging), Google Picasa (for old forum posts) and Google Voice (because it happens to be awesome and irreplaceable IMHO).
Here is an overview of where I moved everything:
- Google Mail -> Apple Mail (iCloud)
- Google Calendar -> Apple iCal (iCloud), except for 1 work calendar
- Google Contacts -> Apple Contacts (iCloud), except for those used by Google Talk
- Google Talk -> AIM, except for a few friends
- Google Photos -> Flickr (Yahoo)
- Google Bookmarks -> Delicious
- Google Reader -> subpug
- Google Docs -> Microsoft SkyDrive
- Google Plus -> Facebook
- Google Sites -> Evernote
- Google Voice -> Google Voice
- Google Video (YouTube) -> Vimeo
Since the migration I have been completely happy with Mail and Calendar synchronization and alerting, which is the one thing that was most frustrating before. In Jobs-speak, “it just works”. And it reality it does.
What am I missing? Nothing really. The single sign on aspect of the Google provided services was nice, but the features I gained at the competing services (especially with iCloud, SkyDrive, and Evernote) far out-weigh it. Single sign on becomes a non issue when you use services like LastPass which can securely sign on for you.