this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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No huge consequences, you're right. Probably annoyed the CEO. But 200 people degoogling? Even people running metrics every day at Google wouldn't notice. It would be great if everyone degoogled, but until that trend starts getting much more traction than it has now it will have no measurable impact, and making more people think about how Google is evil is the only way to increase that traction.
I imagine having a few billion dollars as your net worth raises your threshold to being annoyed by this kind of stuff a bit. Hopefully it did get the attention of whomever thought it was a good idea to invite an evil corporate overlord to an academic graduation though.
I mean, I'll throw my experience in: I broke up with G for everything except YouTube and the Google Store, to finance pixel devices. That was a decade ago, and I have made no active attempts to get others to do the same, yet about half my friend circle have expressed interest in following me, with a couple taking steps on their own. One is actively researching alternative roms and used pixel phones, in the last week. Again, I've made no effort to push them - just mentioning it when it comes up in conversation.
Imagine 200 people doing that, and making the tiniest effort to actively educate others. Domimo effect. Just look at what is happening right now with Windows v Linux. It only takes a few to get the ball rolling on meaningful change.
And it’s not just 200 people in isolation. Their actions were viewed and reported on. Hopefully it gets people thinking about their Google usage. Also yewtu.be is a good alternative to YouTube by the way, so is FreeTube, which at least makes you one step removed from YouTube and using a VPN. I haven’t used Google products willingly in years.
Well that was not my point... my point is that if a significant number of the people that allegedly hate AI/Google/BigCorpo were to actively get rid of their products, there would be an impact.
You are right that 200 is nothing but the real problem, IMO, is that people LOVE the show but not the action. I read hundreds of posts everywhere about how we must fight yet nobody seems to want to get off their chairs
These people literally got off their chairs during their college graduation from a prestigious university to protest the shit Google is doing!
Each person who did that made a bigger impact, and probably a bigger sacrifice, than a person who degoogled. That was my point.
Ultimately we need people to degoogle, but until way more people pay attention to why they should, it will remain a niche thing.
Fair point... maybe I am just too frustrated to see the small gains
not working for google hurts them more than someone degoogling.
that is actually true...
THEY LITERALLY TOOK ACTION. THAT'S WHY THERE'S A STORY.