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Comment by PugPaladin | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised that I'm asking this because I've been such a fan of Google for years....but does anyone have alternative suggestions for Google products? (

Looking for alternative suggestions for:

1. Google Maps (yikes was it bad when I used it this week) 2. Google Docs (such a frustrating lack of features) 3. Google Drive (it's impossible to find anything when you are sharing docs with someone) 4. Google Search (ChatGPT has spoiled me and I find Google Search to be a large waste of time) 5. Google Classroom (their quizzes/homeworks/forms are unbelievable bad and I can't tell what students can see vs what they can't) 6. Gmail (I've love gmail for so long but with all the other products just being so bad it's making me wonder what else I'm missing something better)

Sorry to sh!t on Google so much, but everything is just so mediocre that I'm tired of it and want something higher quality. Anyone have thoughts?

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Excel Online is free, got a lost faster and has the vast majority of Excel features. (Full disclosure I work on it)

Wow that's great. I had no idea - thank you.

> ChatGPT has spoiled me and I find Google Search to be a large waste of time

I hope you're not blindly trusting answers. I experimented with ChatGPT for a while and (even when using the GPT-4 model) I would get answers that were false but didn't sound too unreasonable. I could have easily been misled if I didn't already know the answers to the things I was asking it.

No I don't. It's wrong so much of the time but gives me enough to figure out a lot of stuff. It's more like a rubber duck most of the time.

Google maps has deteriorated considerably for me recently. It used to be flawless, but now it routes me through random neighborhoods and awkward narrow streets, like I haven't seen navigation this bad since MapQuest.

OpenStreetMap [1] is a potential alternative to Google Maps for some.

[1] - https://www.openstreetmap.org/

For Google maps if you have an iphone then i recommend Apple Maps. The traffic data isnt great and their map data could use work and no offline maps (yet!), but i find their directions easy to follow and the UX miles ahead. Lane changes are clearly communicated ahead of time, and the directions are something I’d tell another human, i.e fewer turns than the “optimal” path.

Second Apple Maps. It has gotten quite good over the years and uses also less battery than google maps.

Gmail has been so bad at stopping spam and useless email that I’ve had to essentially abandon one of my email addresses.

Magic earth,osmand+, Openstreetmaps

Wps, only office, Zoho docs

Offline only office is really nice

Nextcloud

Searxng

Zoho mail is like Gmail a decade ago, protonmail is decent too

Don't know most of these - thanks for the info

I found the OsmAnd+ user experience quite irritating, and OpenStreetMap is just a fancy database and not a competing product to Google Maps for the user who wants live directions/navigation.

That said, for mobile use Organic Maps is pretty good: https://organicmaps.app/

Try magic earth, definitely made for driving

Try magic earth, definitely made for driving, and...all maps are just databases. Osmand+ is great after you configure the gui a bit

i use magic earth for maps, libre programs for word/excel etc (not cross-device though), searxng for searches (pick an instance and try it), tutanota for email (they focus on privacy - emails and your inbox are encrypted).

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