Lee Hinman has a post on writequit.org about “De-gooling” himself, i.e. using tools other than those provided by Google. I commend this effort! Ever since Google went public I’ve trusted them far less (much like Yahoo) but have to grudgingly admit their tools are speedy and good for what I need. Unlike Lee, I’m not so open to accepting that Google has stuck to their “Do no evil” mission, but what can you expect when you suddenly have so many stakeholders holding your feet to the fire of profit? I completely share Lee’s concerns over privacy with the Google-machine.

I’ve never heard of Scroogle as a search tool. I’m sold!

Note to self: Open a new account someday just as an RSS feed reader. Bonus points if I find a way to permanently proxy to it.

Read the rest of Lee’s article for more ideas on replacing some Google tools.