Last week, David Petherick addressed the first part of this unimaginative occurrence in “Imagine There’s No Google Part 1″. There he listed virtually every single Google service, the majority of which are completely free – the list is endless.
In this piece I had the pleasure of scouring the web for the best alternatives to each of Google Services, no easy task, however I was pleasantly surprised to find (nearly) ever offering had a close substitute.
Undoubtedly I will have missed a few and therefore will need your help, so please just leave any other alternative services you may think of in the comments and I’ll ensure I add them to the relevant section.
Google Mail
Yahoo Mail, Zimbra, Hotmail, zenbe, Mobileme,
Google Calendar
Backpack, Deadline, Mobileme, Toodledo, Yahoo Calendar, Zimbra, Tungle, presdo, jiffle, diarised
Google Docs
Zoho , Acrobat, thinkfree
Google Reader
fav.or.it, friendfeed, streamy, bloglines, newsgator
Google Friend Connect
Facebook Connect (or TwitterRemote? ;-)
Feedburner
Pheedo
Google Adsense
AdBrite, Clicksor, Bidvertiser, Chitika, AdToll, Exit Junction, Yahoo Publisher Network, Target Point, Fastclick, ClickThruTraffic
Google Knol
Wikipedia, Answerbag, Mahalo
Google Alerts
Backtype, Yotify, Trackle
Google Analytics
Woopra, Clicky
Google News
BBC, Yahoo News, NewsNow
Google Maps
Live Search Maps
Google Checkout
Digital River, 2Checkout, Alertpay, Trialpay, Paypal,
ejunkie,
Google Blog Search
trendpedia, feedster, icerocket, sphere,
Google Chrome
Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera,
Google Finance
Yahoo Finance, bloomberg,
Google Groups
Yahoo Groups, onehub, Tangler
Google Translate
Babel Fish, Nice Translator, Frengly, Jollo, Lingoz,
Google App Engine
Microsoft Azure, Mosso, Cohesiveft
YouTube
Vimeo, Viddler, Metacafe, Yahoo Video, Revver,
Google Search
chacha, faroo, kosmix, quintura, yahoo search, live search, twitter search, dogpile, cuil, Duck Duck Go
Without search all of the other Google products wouldn’t exist. While Google has made (and bought) some great products which it is slowly stitching together, a lot listed above are second rate at best – al least for the moment.
Horizontal and vertical search alternatives – now that’s a more interesting “what if”. I don’t know if anyone could corner the search market again – perhaps it would fragment into specific verticals where media/research/”now”/blog etc verticals are controlled by a specific player.
on the calendars there is also 30 boxes http://30boxes.com
Lol, a little actually! :) Also Unwrapp.com :)
Did you use google to research this?
:)
Good list, though some of the alternatives don’t really match up to what Google is offering. I’d say that Gmail, Google Groups, Google News, and YouTube are all much better than their competition.
Google’s main driver is still search though, and it’s still their strongest product. None of the alternatives in that category are even remotely close to offering what Google search does.
The thought of using these services separately is almost as scary as the thought … shudder… of no Google!
Also crazyegg.com alternative to Google Analytics. By the way this page shows a Javascript error in IE7 status bar. The error is “Object doesnt support this property or method”
I use Google because (A) I refuse to support Microsoft, or (B) Yahoo.
For the time being, Google offers a balance for me of form, features, and substance. Google’s data collection doesn’t scare me. Then again, I’m old enough to remember that the Internet was created originally as an open network built to withstand a nuclear strike, for the Department of Defense.
Half the problems today would go away if (A) kids weren’t allowed on unsupervised, and (B) people remembered that there’s no such thing as anonymous and private communication on the Net. Everything’s a postcard. While you or your neighbor may not be able to open the proverbial envelope, doesn’t mean I, and most certainly Government, can’t.
If Google were to go away today, I would revert back to doing what I used to do before Google came around, keep my data more closer to home. That’s all. As far as search goes, between StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us (yes, I know now owned by Yahoo), and the tried and true “bookmarks.html” file, I’m sure we’ll survive.
Great list! I am always looking for non-Google services to use, and only “Google” when absolutely necessary.
Nice list! :) This is great if you take each google service as a standalone. But the true alternative to Google’s services will be a “suite of apps” that work with each other. The reason why Google services are cool is because it has what we call in the multimedia industry as “pipeline integration” i.e., the output of one module can be directly fed to another module. Google services seamlessly connect with each other to create an “friction free” experience. e.g.: Gmail offline feature using Google Gears that comes default in Google Chrome. This is a neat package requiring minimal management from me. Imagine the mess if I tried to recreate this feature using the alternatives.
Nice one. But where’s iGoogle (Netvibes, Pageflakes, Live.com, etc.)
Excellent list / article / concept! Have a couple more:
haveamint.com and jabber.org and openoffice.org.
If you’d like a tool for managing your time and projects, you can use this application inspired by David Allen’s GTD:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.
So what that there are alternatives to google. The Alternatives are not as good and efficient that Google. The alternatives are just poor imitation of google.
There is no substitute to Google Scholar
noca.com instead of Google Checkout
Actually there is an alternative to Google Scholar, Scirus http://www.scirus.com from Elsevier. “Scirus provides focussed channel-searching by content provider and categories”. It also has an addon for Firefox.
See http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/jchla/jchla26/c05-030.pdf for a previous comparison
Huh that would not be nice.. i still remember those days without cell phones..brrr
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I definitely agree, it’s phenomenal how one initial product has spread so far.