> Yes: minimize or stop using them... The web has very little lock-in

There are people who could not register to vote in time because reCAPTCHA has blocked them.

What‘s your alternative to using reCAPTCHA? Have you tried building a page with login function without it?

Not using a captcha at all?

300,000 users a month and we don't have any problems. Why do people think this is so critical? Just because TEH GOOGLE convinced us it is in order to push their product?

www.hcaptcha.com www.solvemedia.com

A load of other anti-spam captchas not owned by Google...

Notice that I said on the user side. I completely agree that when a web site uses various Google (or other) services you're stuck. However, the article is about Google removing URLs from search results... you can do something about that.

So basically after a few decades of using the Internet, we're now at a place where we are willing to stop using some of the most famous services we're accustomed to. Strangely, those are mostly owned by Google and Facebook.

Yes, that's the way market economies work. One of your jobs as a consumer is to recognize when your interests and a company's no longer align and be willing to walk.

Of course, but majority of people aren't informed enough about these situations and that has created a negative loop which allows these companies to exploit lack of knowledge on their customers' part in an increasing rate.

Ding Ding Ding! Google is working against their users' interests, and most of them don't realize it, because computers are still magical appliances to 95% of users.

That doesn't mitigate Google's evil, it makes it worse.

My roadblock with that is when I tell people I try to not use Google properties, they look at me like i'm some sort of conspiracy theorist loon. :/

Mojeek is independent search engine: https://www.mojeek.com/