• Dojan@lemmy.world
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      8 个月前

      Honestly every single Google product should be added to it with a “TBD” or “Coming Soon” on the death date.

    • eronth@lemmy.world
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      8 个月前

      For sure. I no longer buy into new Google products because they’re going to die. It also makes it hard to recommend anything Google. They’re literally killing their ability to expand by constantly doing this.

      • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 个月前

        Makes me think of when they brought out Stadia… Friend of mine was all into it, and didn’t understand why I just shrugged and didn’t bother with it.

        I think he learned a valuable lesson there… Oh well, at least they refunded people’s money

    • jayandp@sh.itjust.works
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      8 个月前

      The only plus in this situation is that switching VPNs is far easier than other services since it’s just a pipe you’re swapping out.

      Still annoying though, since Google VPN was nice if you were already paying for Google One. Now people will have to pay extra for something else.

          • Woozythebear@lemmy.world
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            8 个月前

            Surfshark, I don’t know much about VPN’s but I’ve been told they are pretty secure and don’t share your info. I mainly use VPN’s to pirate shows and movies and for that it’s worked well, havnt gotten any letters from my ISP.

            I’m not endorsing them just to be clear as I am not knowledgeable enough to know if it’s good or not but it was recommended by someone I trust with that stuff like 3 years ago.

        • jayandp@sh.itjust.works
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          8 个月前

          Yeah, but that’s still an extra expense. Most people using Google VPN were using it because they were already paying for Google One.

        • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
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          8 个月前

          3 years (and more since some of my friends used my link to sign up) of NordVPN for 78 dollars.

  • Fubarberry
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    8 个月前

    I’m usually interested in a VPN for privacy, using a VPN provided by Google feels like I’d have been less privacy.

    • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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      8 个月前

      It’s an easy way to bypass dumb states anti porn laws for those that already pay for extra space.

        • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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          8 个月前

          Sort of. Texas and others instituted laws where websites have to age verify anyone looking at porn. So a bunch of websites just geofenced off those places. The easy way to watch porn is to connect to a VPN or go to shittier sites.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      8 个月前

      Me, deeply cynical: “Google is just using their VPN to spy on you. They’ve got an entire department dedicated to checking what websites you visit while using the VPN and building a profile on each individual, which they will turn over to the authorities the moment society collapses into a state of anarchy and military law must be imposed.”

      Google CEO: “Shut down the secret VPN counterintelligence program that tracks all the future domestic terrorists in the event of a widespread domestic insurgency. Its not making us enough money.”

    • smolyeet@lemmy.world
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      8 个月前

      I feel like it would be weird to if you got a vpn for the purpose of downloading isos or making it harder to track you. It wasn’t always available to iOS users either ( I have an iPhone so that’s why I’m mentioning it) , so you already neutered those two bases. It seemed like a niche offering to begin with

    • Twitches@lemm.ee
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      8 个月前

      They didn’t refund nest thermostat users when they verified those devices.

  • cum@lemmy.cafe
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    8 个月前

    Yeah I can see why people weren’t using it lol. Google is entirely the person they’re trying to hide from.

    • xe3@lemmy.world
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      8 个月前

      Yeah voluntarily using a VPN from Google (the largest tracking and Adtech company), is like voluntarily seeking out Mob “protection”

      • Jojo@lemm.ee
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        8 个月前

        Reasonable when the alternative is literally getting mugged on the daily?

        • xe3@lemmy.world
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          8 个月前

          Considering that in this analogy you’d be asking the mugger to be your protector it is still unreasonable.

          Particularly considering there are plenty of reputable and privacy respecting vpn providers

          • Jojo@lemm.ee
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            8 个月前

            Oh, I’m with you. I don’t think anyone using Google VPN was using it because it protected their privacy on the Internet generally. At least I hope not.

  • ITeeTechMonkey@lemmy.world
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    8 个月前

    Google is removing the VPN and free shipping (which was only available on some photo orders) to make way for more “in demand features”?

    I could understand if this was coming from a smaller company with more limited resources and staff, but that’s not Google by any means.

    They really don’t care about the poor reputation the general public has of them regarding shutting down services on a whim.

    What’s worse though is they don’t seem to realize that, with the exception of Android and maybe Google Docs, their services/products are easily replaced by competitor offerings.

    In my opinion it’s a good thing if Google gets knocked of their high horse and allow competition to flourish in their place.

    • kbin_space_program@kbin.run
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      8 个月前

      Google docs is only good for collaboration. Otherwise its insane that MS Office is still superior to it.

      Hell, Libreoffice is admittedly slightly behind MS for features, and its still superior to Google Docs.

      • bamboo@lemm.ee
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        8 个月前

        The big advantage of google docs is that it is free and good enough. Most people don’t need advanced formatting options, font size and a few choices are sufficient.

          • bamboo@lemm.ee
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            8 个月前

            Sure but I can’t run libreoffice on my iPad, and that’s a deciding factor for more people than the licensing.

            • kbin_space_program@kbin.run
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              8 个月前

              Oh sweet green earth. Why the hell would you ever edit documents on an ipad

              You need a job with a sane IT policy.

              • bamboo@lemm.ee
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                8 个月前

                Why wouldn’t you? They’re super convenient, being small and lightweight, with high quality keyboards that make them more laptop like, plus they support standard USB and Bluetooth keyboards. They aren’t full laptop replacements, but basic office productivity tasks they surely are, and have first class support from Microsoft office, google docs, and Apple’s office tools. In a meeting for example, they can be used to take notes, and then quickly screen mirror to a TV wirelessly or with a wired adapter and be used as a drawing tablet for sketching ideas or drawing diagrams. Extremely versatile, there’s nothing really like it (well, besides other tablets).

                They certainly don’t replace a real laptop in all aspects, but they do for most people most of the time, hence why it’s common for people to use smartphones and tablets as their only computer.

    • Eheran@lemmy.world
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      8 个月前

      What’s actually is worse that people do not care and continue using Google, being arbitrarily dependent on them.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      8 个月前

      Same reason I’d use any cheap easily accessible VPN.

      To get AT&T off my back every time I pirate some anime or a new movie.

    • Copernican@lemmy.world
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      8 个月前

      It’s cheap and easy for me to use it while traveling around and going on god knows what public wifi network. I am not using google VPN for privacy, but using it for some sense of security out of my home. Already paying for Google One storage, so this was a nice perk.

        • fatal3rror@mastodon.social
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          8 个月前

          @asdfasdfasdf @Copernican
          It all depends if you trust the ISP less than a random VPN provider. With DNS over HTTPS and mostly encrypted traffic these days, the ISPs don’t get to see more than IPs. But IPs are sometimes all they need to figure out what your browsing, especially in some countries where they can throttle your traffic depending on what you’re doing. Luckily, in the EU that is illegal, so all you’d need a VPN at home for is bypassing geo-restriction and maybe hiding your Linux seeds

          • Copernican@lemmy.world
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            8 个月前

            Hehe. Yeah. I dont need my ubiiquiti dream router categorizing how many gigs of porn hub gets into my home based on IP.

  • csm10495@sh.itjust.works
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    8 个月前

    Kind of funny that they sent an email with like 3 benefits of Google One being dropped but nothing added back.

    They should drop Google One. It’s literally just storage afaict.

  • weew@lemmy.ca
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    8 个月前

    Didn’t they advertise this as one of the benefits of buying a pixel phone?

    Less than a year and it’s gone… Not that it was much of a feature in the first place