Alternatives to Google, and browser plug-ins to improve your privacy

[hrafn]

ETA what looks like a really good spreadsheet alternative.

But first: http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/11/google-working-on-a-marketplace-for-advertisers-to-buy-and-sell-your-data/

Google is working to create

Comments

[zandperl]

FYI, Google+ is planning to make displaying gender optional.

https://plus.google.com/106792630639449031994/posts/5kt9TpEb77m

Edit:
BTW, you are aware that Flickr is owned by Yahoo! right? However I like their TOS for images better than Google's. Flickr also has good integration with Twitter if you care about that.

[hrafn]

I'm not surprised Google is backing down on public display of gender; I know they're technically in beta, so a lot of things people are complaining about may be improved. It was still a remarkably poor thing to have to fix, though.

Yeah, I had a Flickr account at the time Yahoo bought them, one I rarely used. I was really irritated that, unlike the Delicious acquisition, I couldn't keep that old Flickr account separate from a Yahoo account. I am pretty sure the Yahoo account I have to login to Flickr is only used for that (I have other yahoo accounts dating from other times, for other purposes).

There doesn't seem to be another photo sharing site out there that I like as well as Flickr, though (I've looked into other alternatives), and Yahoo doesn't seem to have quite as many tentacles through the Web as Google does.

[bubblebabble]

For mapping per se, I highly recommend http://www.openstreetmap.org/ . Caveat: I haven't found a good site using their data for routing/navigation within the US.

[hrafn]

open.mapquest.com does directions using that data - and in some cases, they seem to have good locations for places that the big mapping places don't. It loads a lot slower than some of the others, though :\