The most valid alternatives to the most important Google services: Drive and Docs, Gmail, Search, Youtube, Maps, and others
Alternatives for Google Search
Giving up doing searches with Google, at least in Italian, really means limiting the chances of finding the right sites on the internet. However, if we care about privacy and do not want our searches to be tracked by Google, we can rely on a free and untracked search engine such as DuckDuckGo.
DuckDuckGo is truly appreciated in the US as an open-source, non-profit search engine, which does not store any personal research and information. This search engine is good in English and in recent times it is also doing very well in Italian, even if we are far from the accuracy achieved by Google over the years.
To discover other interesting search engines we can read our article ai 50 sites to search the internet for anything.
Alternatives to YouTube
YouTube is the number one video site in the world, but over the past few years, it has had to contend with videos and streams shared on Facebook Watch, IGTV (Instagram’s streaming platform available as an app on Android and iPhone / iPad), and on Twitch (the latter in particular for the live broadcasts of the games).
With these alternatives, we will be able to view any interesting video uploaded to social media and not regret YouTube! The problem with YouTube is that a lot of videos are removed if they don’t respect copyrights so eventually searches can’t be complete. Fortunately, there are freer and more permissive alternatives, such as Dailymotion, a free alternative to watch videos where you can upload videos with fewer constraints. Vimeo is also a good video site, although it has many limitations on uploading by registered users, as only the sharing of videos no larger than 500 MB per week is free.
To find out how to quickly find the video we want on the Internet, we invite you to read our guide on how to find online videos on the internet.
Alternatives to Gmail
I respect other services, Gmail is definitely the easiest to replace. Though Gmail is the best free email service today, other services like Outlook and Yahoo Mail are absolutely up to par and, in some ways, even better.
To choose a good alternative to Gmail we can also read our article Create an Email Address: Best Free Email Services. If, on the other hand, we are looking for an Email service with no space limits in storing attachments, we can read our guide to 5 Email services without space limits to store emails and attachments.
Alternatives to Google Drive and Docs / Sheets / Slides apps
Google’s services for creating and saving Office documents online are pretty good, but with Microsoft Office Online the comparison is really very hard since many paid Office functions are available for free and are supported by the OneDrive cloud.
In addition to Microsoft, there are also other sites to write and save documents on the internet such as Zoho or those indicated in the guide to Top 10 Free Microsoft Office Alternatives for PC and Mac, in American.
If instead, we are simply looking for an alternative cloud service to Google Drive, we can read our article Comparison of free Cloud Drive to save files online.
Google Maps alternatives
Google Maps is a great online service, which also provides a free GPS navigator for Android and for iPhone / iOS.
From PC we can also use the maps offered by OpenStreetMap, an open-source map service freely accessible by anyone.
With this site, we can find any place on Earth and also create itineraries and fast routes, so as to be able to effectively replace even a complete service such as Google Maps. OpenStreetMap is also available as an app OsmAnd, available for Android and iPhone / iPad.
To try other smartphone navigators we can read our guides 15 GPS navigators with free offline maps for Android, alternatives to Google Maps are the Best GPS navigator apps for iPhone alternative to Apple Maps.
Alternatives to Google Photos
Thanks to the Google Photos app we can save all the photos taken on the smartphone to the cloud without space limits (at a predefined quality): this advantage is difficult to replicate by rivals, making Google Photos one of a kind.
If we want to try alternatives to this extraordinary service, we can use those reported in our guide Auto Upload Phone Photos to Unlimited Cloud, where you can find other clouds for interesting photos.
Alternatives to Google Home / Google Assistant
From this point of view, the Google Assistant and the speakers compatible with Google Home have a really strong rival and in many ways superior: Amazon Alexa, a complete voice assistant, very precise and compatible with any modern home automation device.
All we will have to do is buy an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot speaker, connect it to the Internet and launch the voice commands, as also seen in the guide Functions of the Amazon Echo, what it is for and what it does. To learn more we can read our guides Amazon Alexa: How to create routines and new voice commands is How to control heating with Amazon Echo and Alexa.
READ ALSO: Best voice assistants for Android and iPhone (alternatives to Google and Siri)
Conclusions
Replacing all the most used Google services is not easy and often the result is lower than that offered by Google (which can boast unlimited funds and entire teams of developers), but this does not mean that we cannot use alternatives when looking for some privacy. additional or if we no longer want to use Google in our life!
In other articles, we have also seen the alternatives to the Play Store to download Android apps and of Chromium-based alternative browsers to Chrome.
If we care about privacy, we can also read our guides Secure, anonymous Linux systems to use your computer without traces is How to surf anonymously from smartphones (Android and iPhone).