Guest9821

> I think these companies are acting on pretty high principle.

I wouldn't say that. With news spreading about the NSA having access to your Google data, including your Gmail, people start to worry, and more importantly, they start to look towards alternatives. Google is getting a pretty bad reputation these days when it comes to user privacy, and this isn't helping their cause. This obviously affects their bottom line, and so they're looking for change.

It's amazing the most crucial applications in our day to day lives are absolutely awful. Why is there not a great messenger application available, that's simple, well designed, and secures our data? Why is there not a proper alternative to Skype, offering free group video calling, while protecting our privacy? Why does e-mail feel so dated and sloppy? I sent out a handful of e-mails last week, my mail server said they were sent, but none of the recipients received them. I sent another message to a friend the other month, and she missed it because it went to her spam folder. Why do I even receive spam? I know you can setup a whitelist only, but why isn't this more of a standard, where I build a contact list with friends, and we can leave messages back and forth, receive proper confirmation they're received, read, etc. It would be nice if I could login to my e-mail, and see I have 20 friends, 10 sites that are able to message me, and then manage that list by adding or removing.

We have some incredible apps and software out there, but the most important ones are those lacking the most.

Well, this isn't in my area, but I'd be all over it. First off, I live in a city center, and I'm single. I walk to the grocery store and carry everything I buy, so I typically go twice a week and spend about $50 each time. It takes about 45min to walk to the store, shop, walk back, and unload groceries.

If this is $300/yr, that means I have to decide between going to the store myself, or paying $2.88 for amazon to deliver my groceries every few days. $2.88 to avoid putting on pants, interrupting my workflow, walking to and from the store, and waiting in line. That seems like a deal I'd take.

Then again, when I go to the grocery store, I usually walk to the bakery, market, etc. Plus, being forced to leave the house, wear pants, and interact with human beings has some advantages. Sometimes I get too comfortable being at home, and the fear of starvation is good motivation to get fresh air.

I have my passwords secure, and use Keepass. The database is backed up on my Truecrypt external drives, in case my laptop is stolen, and I lose the database file.

I figure my job is to protect my username and password, so that's exactly what I do, secure them, and have backups. What I don't expect is getting locked out of my account when I have the valid username and password to login. Also, Google provides zero support. I generate them at least $20k a year in profits off advertising, and I lose my Gmail account for no reason. Anyway, I'm done with them, and switching to alternatives.

I gave up on Google yesterday, when I tried to log-in to my account, from home, with the correct username and password, and they decided to lock me out. They said it was a 'new location', and to recover, I needed to know the answer to my 5 year old security question. That wasn't possible, so the other option was entering the month my account was created. The month? I can narrow it down to a 3 year window at best. Needless to say, recovery failed, and I can no longer access my account, because Google just decided I'm not me.