Google's recent announcement to end Google Reader came as bad news to a lot of people, including yours truly. However, it might actually be precipitating my weaning off Big Data.
For a long time, it's been my intention to divest from or at least distribute my interests in Big Data. I am a heavy user of Google's search, Calendar, Gmail, Reader, and, of course, Blogger. I've repeatedly tried to find alternatives to all of the preceding before, and every attempt has ended with it just being too much bother and/or my not being able to find a workable alternative.
That's changed.
The impending demise of Reader got me off my butt and into finding something, anything (Big Data or not), that would work for me. And I think I've succeeded. It also just turned out that the best solution I found, Tiny Tiny RSS, is a self-hosted FOSS Web app. It's not perfect, mind you--but it does what I need it to.
Now this has got me going. Next up for me is Calendar--possibly using ownCloud, which could also replace Google Drive (which I barely use at all). Then probably my blogs--for which there are a lot of options.
Email and search? Those will be harder to find alternatives for, but you never know.
I intend to go with self-hosted or at least self-hostable solutions for all the preceding. The added burden is just part of the cost of maintaining a healthy technology ecology.
