It seems as though BigTech is more frequently putting profit before people. This post is a list of alternatives to some common internet tools or software to move away from Google, X, Meta, etc… many of the alternatives I have found on something called the Fediverse. This year’s theme for me has been “finding alternatives”- and it is due to a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons is that the other tools or software is supporting or encouraging actual Nazis, otherwise it is supporting AI, and you can find out how I feel about AI on this page.
Mastodon instead of X, FB, etc.
I wrote a post about why I’ve decided to use Mastodon instead of the rest over here – However, after learning that Facebook is paying actual Nazi’s to post on their platform, and X is run by an actual Nazi, Mastodon looks like the better choice every day. I have not found an Instagram alternative yet though, as the Fediverse alternative looks to be too profit-driven. However there is what looks to be a good Instagram alternative that focuses on Photography, called Vernissage – Instead of Threads I am using Mastodon.
I should take a moment to mention that the Fediverse is a growing group of software alternatives. You can view a lot of them over here. – one example is the Twitch alternative Owncast. You can read more about the Fediverse on Wikipedia.
Piefed.social instead of Reddit
After learning that Reddit was making deals with the big AI companies to share its data for training, I was encouraged to look for alternatives. Piefed.social is a reddit alternative that is slowly growing and currently offers enough engagement for me to use it more frequently. Piefed describes itself as Federated, open‑source, ad‑free, no algorithms, no corporate overlords, no attention economy, and no tracking.
Special mention: Bubbles. Bubbles (I feel) is related to reddit due to it sharing links: For discovering some blog content I’ve started using Bubbles.town – here you can find lots of interesting blog posts that are voted up (similar to reddit) by the community.
PeerTube instead of YouTube
Google adding AI to everything was enough for me to look for Google alternatives, and it won’t be long before YouTube is full of slop and AI. PeerTube is a YouTube alternative that is slowly growing as well. And recently I came across a useful tool to help search for new videos – This way I can find any new science videos for example that get posted.
Search alternatives instead of Google
Since Google decided to go full-AI, and the search results were getting worse and worse (Google is now sending close to zero traffic to my websites anymore), it was past time to look for Google search alternatives. Looking back, it was a mistake to trust a profit-driven company with something so social and important as Web Search. Here are some alternative’s to Google, that may be small and growing, but its a good start:
Marginalia Search – is an impressive Search Engine that focuses on quality results. I’ve used it a few times to search for Academic Papers and science related queries with some success. (They also have a Mastodon account, which is a huge plus).
pears – is a really interesting project that I am really attracted to. It allows website submission into categories, with each category being searchable. For instance, here is a Science instance that is over here. – they also have a Mastodon account!
There are a few other Search alternatives that I have been trying out, such as PriEco – and Mojeek – But I don’t really want to recommend these just yet. Mojeek because they have not been responsive about AI, and sometimes the results recommend Grok instead of Wikipedia. And PriEco looks to be a corporate/profit-driven alternative. Why not DuckDuckGo and SearX? – these alternatives still use the Google and Bing indexes, where the results are getting worse and worse.
Special Mention: FastMail – you may be looking for a Gmail alternative for similar reasons. One Gmail alternative I’ve come across and used with some success is Fastmail.
LibreWolf instead of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Vivaldi, etc.
For the same reasons above I’ve avoided using Chrome, and for a long time I was using Firefox. Unfortunately their AI stance in development is not good enough, they are letting a lot of slop in, and it was time to look for an alternative. LibreWolf – I believe it is a fork of Firefox without the AI. They also have a Mastodon account, have a look. – they also host their code on Codeberg, which brings me to the next section:
Codeberg instead of Github
If you’re a developer, you might not be too keen on Github anymore. I’d like to take a moment to mention Codeberg – it is a non-profit Code hosting platform that has publicly stated it won’t be supporting AI projects, and it won’t be supporting Crypto projects. All three major plusses.
Textpattern instead of Medium.com, Substack, & Ghost.
Medium began showing a notice that users must complete a step in order to read the full article. While alternatives to Medium such a Substack were allowing actual Nazi’s to gain an income stream and platform. Ghost decided not to take any stance regarding AI despite myself and others asking them where they stand. So I found a much better alternative to those three platforms using TextPattern – while it is more hands on and you need to host it yourself, and there is no community discovery, it is still a much better tool for me overall and it is what this website uses.
Future changes
Looking forward, it seems that I may have to change what Phone I use and what Computer I use. Apple despite saying they care about Privacy, are planning on coming out with camera-equipped Smartglasses and Earbuds. They are also pushing more of Siri AI into things by the look of it. An alternative Phone might be the Fairphone – As for the computer, Framework looks like a ton of fun. The combination of all these alternatives (and hardware alternatives) seem to point toward a better internet future. I hope this post helps you consider changing your daily internet routine in some way or another.