While I'm Thinking About It

Well aware of the hypocrisy, thank you very much.

Some of the Google-options I've been talking about this week are things I already knew about. The rest I've found out about by typing "name of service alternatives" into Google.

Yeah.

Anyway, my knee-jerk reaction to the Chrome OS is softening a bit. Yes, their business is Information Exploitation, but if you know that going in and are able to not be stupid with what you give them access to, go for it. Still, because options are always a good thing, I'll go ahead and do one more.

Google Talk. Pidgin likes to bill itself as the "Universal Chat Client". Given just how many chat protocols it can work with, that's probably not too far off. There's no reason not to have this, especially if you chat with people on more than one network. Meebo is a web-based alternative. Neither one supports voice chat, though.

gMail. There are so many webmail options out there it's almost not funny. One I've been playing with recently is GMX. It's nice enough, and I like the interface. However, they've reserved a good 20% of the screen (more or less depending on your resolution) for what can only be a giant leaderboard ad once their userbase reaches some critical mass. You can even hang onto your Hotmail address and I won't judge.

Google Search. Bing, I guess. Maybe Yahoo, they're still around. Oh, who am I kidding? Google is the undisputed king of internet search.Might as well stick with what works.