{"id":647257,"date":"2013-03-18T08:17:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T12:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betanews.com\/?p=136482"},"modified":"2013-03-18T08:17:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-18T12:17:00","slug":"sorry-google-im-switching-to-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/647257","title":{"rendered":"Sorry Google, I\u2019m switching to Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A week ago, I had a dream. I was sitting on a beach with a glass of wine and a laptop and I was searching the internet using Bing. My wife came up, saw what I was doing, and said “Why aren\u2019t you using Google?” To which I replied, “I\u2019m boycotting it. The company shutdown Reader.” Yes, that\u2019s right, I dreamt Reader was being shuttered before Google even announced it, and now I\u2019m using Bing. Spooky or what?<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s make one thing very clear here. Although I plan to switch to using Microsoft\u2019s services for a while, it\u2019s not a boycott. I realized, after the dream, that I\u2019ve been so tied into Google that I\u2019ve never really given Microsoft\u2019s alternatives — Bing, Outlook.com, Bing Maps, and even Internet Explorer — a fair chance to see how they compare. I’ve used them, in passing at least, but I’ve never used them full time. And today that\u2019s about to change.<\/p>\n

From now, I\u2019m going to start using Outlook.com as my primary email account (still using my Gmail addresses to send and receive messages of course) and Internet Explorer as my web browser. Having only just really made the full time transition from Firefox to Chrome, that will take a while to get used to.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be searching exclusively through Bing, which is easy as it\u2019s the default in IE anyway, and using Bing Maps instead of Google Maps. I already have SkyDrive set up through Windows 8, so I\u2019ll switch to using that entirely, in place of Google Drive. Where there\u2019s a straight replacement for an occasional Google service — Bing Translator, for example — I\u2019ll use that. My aim, really, is just to fully immerse myself in Microsoft\u2019s services, and to get a real idea of how they compare.<\/p>\n

Change Can Be Good<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few years ago I was a die-hard iPhone user, but then I switched to a Galaxy S II, and then to an S III, and while I still own (and love) my iPad, I can\u2019t see myself ever going back to the iPhone — well not without a huge incentive. Because I use my Samsung phone all the time, I\u2019ve become so used to how it works, what features and apps are where, that switching back to an iPhone will seem like a retrograde step. The same is true with Windows 8. Although the OS could stand a lot of improving, I\u2019m used to it now, and prefer the way a lot of things are done in it. When I switch back to Windows 7, it seems odd and (admitting this feels weird) not as good.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thinking by committing myself to Microsoft\u2019s services, forsaking Google\u2019s, I might — just might — end up preferring at least one if not more of them. I might discover features and ways of doing things that are better and that I will miss if I switch back to Google.<\/p>\n

Or I might end up realizing just how much better Google is at everything. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

I’m not the first BetaNews writer to try giving up Google. My colleague Joe Wilcox did something similar two years ago. Worried that he\u2019d sold his soul to the Mountain View, Calif.-based company he tried to swap as many Google products<\/a> for alternatives, including Microsoft services. Ultimately he failed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Because my plan isn\u2019t a boycott, or — like Joe\u2019s idea — an attempt to entirely remove Google from my life, I will still use some of the big G\u2019s products. I have an Android phone and won\u2019t be swapping it for a Nokia Lumia. Microsoft doesn\u2019t have anything that competes with YouTube (aside from Bing Videos), so I\u2019ll have to stay with that. I use Google Reader religiously, but I may take the opportunity to switch to Feedly, because I\u2019ll have to at some point anyway, so it might as well be now.<\/p>\n

These are the Google products I intend to try and replace with Microsoft ones.<\/p>\n