Google is phasing out VPN by Google One in favor of other features and benefits it intends to provide Google One users.
    • Dojan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      8 months ago

      Honestly every single Google product should be added to it with a “TBD” or “Coming Soon” on the death date.

    • eronth@lemmy.worldEnglish
      32·
      8 months ago

      For sure. I no longer buy into new Google products because they’re going to die. It also makes it hard to recommend anything Google. They’re literally killing their ability to expand by constantly doing this.

      • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        16·
        8 months ago

        Makes me think of when they brought out Stadia… Friend of mine was all into it, and didn’t understand why I just shrugged and didn’t bother with it.

        I think he learned a valuable lesson there… Oh well, at least they refunded people’s money

    • jayandp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12·
      8 months ago

      The only plus in this situation is that switching VPNs is far easier than other services since it’s just a pipe you’re swapping out.

      Still annoying though, since Google VPN was nice if you were already paying for Google One. Now people will have to pay extra for something else.

        • jayandp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          Yeah, but that’s still an extra expense. Most people using Google VPN were using it because they were already paying for Google One.

          • Woozythebear@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            8 months ago

            Surfshark, I don’t know much about VPN’s but I’ve been told they are pretty secure and don’t share your info. I mainly use VPN’s to pirate shows and movies and for that it’s worked well, havnt gotten any letters from my ISP.

            I’m not endorsing them just to be clear as I am not knowledgeable enough to know if it’s good or not but it was recommended by someone I trust with that stuff like 3 years ago.

        • youmaynotknow@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          3 years (and more since some of my friends used my link to sign up) of NordVPN for 78 dollars.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      122·
      8 months ago

      Me, deeply cynical: “Google is just using their VPN to spy on you. They’ve got an entire department dedicated to checking what websites you visit while using the VPN and building a profile on each individual, which they will turn over to the authorities the moment society collapses into a state of anarchy and military law must be imposed.”

      Google CEO: “Shut down the secret VPN counterintelligence program that tracks all the future domestic terrorists in the event of a widespread domestic insurgency. Its not making us enough money.”

    • smolyeet@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      8 months ago

      I feel like it would be weird to if you got a vpn for the purpose of downloading isos or making it harder to track you. It wasn’t always available to iOS users either ( I have an iPhone so that’s why I’m mentioning it) , so you already neutered those two bases. It seemed like a niche offering to begin with

    • Twitches@lemm.eeEnglish
      22·
      8 months ago

      They didn’t refund nest thermostat users when they verified those devices.

  • cum@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    36·
    8 months ago

    Yeah I can see why people weren’t using it lol. Google is entirely the person they’re trying to hide from.

    • xe3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      8 months ago

      Yeah voluntarily using a VPN from Google (the largest tracking and Adtech company), is like voluntarily seeking out Mob “protection”

      • Jojo@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        8 months ago

        Reasonable when the alternative is literally getting mugged on the daily?

        • xe3@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          Considering that in this analogy you’d be asking the mugger to be your protector it is still unreasonable.

          Particularly considering there are plenty of reputable and privacy respecting vpn providers

          • Jojo@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            8 months ago

            Oh, I’m with you. I don’t think anyone using Google VPN was using it because it protected their privacy on the Internet generally. At least I hope not.

  • Fubarberry@ani.socialEnglish
    33·
    8 months ago

    I’m usually interested in a VPN for privacy, using a VPN provided by Google feels like I’d have been less privacy.

    • TexasDrunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17·
      8 months ago

      It’s an easy way to bypass dumb states anti porn laws for those that already pay for extra space.

        • TexasDrunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          8 months ago

          Sort of. Texas and others instituted laws where websites have to age verify anyone looking at porn. So a bunch of websites just geofenced off those places. The easy way to watch porn is to connect to a VPN or go to shittier sites.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      141·
      8 months ago

      Same reason I’d use any cheap easily accessible VPN.

      To get AT&T off my back every time I pirate some anime or a new movie.

    • Copernican@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      8 months ago

      It’s cheap and easy for me to use it while traveling around and going on god knows what public wifi network. I am not using google VPN for privacy, but using it for some sense of security out of my home. Already paying for Google One storage, so this was a nice perk.

        • fatal3rror@mastodon.social
          1·
          8 months ago

          @asdfasdfasdf @Copernican
          It all depends if you trust the ISP less than a random VPN provider. With DNS over HTTPS and mostly encrypted traffic these days, the ISPs don’t get to see more than IPs. But IPs are sometimes all they need to figure out what your browsing, especially in some countries where they can throttle your traffic depending on what you’re doing. Luckily, in the EU that is illegal, so all you’d need a VPN at home for is bypassing geo-restriction and maybe hiding your Linux seeds

          • Copernican@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            8 months ago

            Hehe. Yeah. I dont need my ubiiquiti dream router categorizing how many gigs of porn hub gets into my home based on IP.

  • ITeeTechMonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    8 months ago

    Google is removing the VPN and free shipping (which was only available on some photo orders) to make way for more “in demand features”?

    I could understand if this was coming from a smaller company with more limited resources and staff, but that’s not Google by any means.

    They really don’t care about the poor reputation the general public has of them regarding shutting down services on a whim.

    What’s worse though is they don’t seem to realize that, with the exception of Android and maybe Google Docs, their services/products are easily replaced by competitor offerings.

    In my opinion it’s a good thing if Google gets knocked of their high horse and allow competition to flourish in their place.

    • kbin_space_program@kbin.run
      171·
      8 months ago

      Google docs is only good for collaboration. Otherwise its insane that MS Office is still superior to it.

      Hell, Libreoffice is admittedly slightly behind MS for features, and its still superior to Google Docs.

      • bamboo@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        The big advantage of google docs is that it is free and good enough. Most people don’t need advanced formatting options, font size and a few choices are sufficient.

          • bamboo@lemm.eeEnglish
            3·
            8 months ago

            Sure but I can’t run libreoffice on my iPad, and that’s a deciding factor for more people than the licensing.

            • kbin_space_program@kbin.run
              13·
              8 months ago

              Oh sweet green earth. Why the hell would you ever edit documents on an ipad

              You need a job with a sane IT policy.

              • bamboo@lemm.eeEnglish
                2·
                8 months ago

                Why wouldn’t you? They’re super convenient, being small and lightweight, with high quality keyboards that make them more laptop like, plus they support standard USB and Bluetooth keyboards. They aren’t full laptop replacements, but basic office productivity tasks they surely are, and have first class support from Microsoft office, google docs, and Apple’s office tools. In a meeting for example, they can be used to take notes, and then quickly screen mirror to a TV wirelessly or with a wired adapter and be used as a drawing tablet for sketching ideas or drawing diagrams. Extremely versatile, there’s nothing really like it (well, besides other tablets).

                They certainly don’t replace a real laptop in all aspects, but they do for most people most of the time, hence why it’s common for people to use smartphones and tablets as their only computer.

    • Eheran@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      8 months ago

      What’s actually is worse that people do not care and continue using Google, being arbitrarily dependent on them.

  • csm10495@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    13·
    8 months ago

    Kind of funny that they sent an email with like 3 benefits of Google One being dropped but nothing added back.

    They should drop Google One. It’s literally just storage afaict.

  • weew@lemmy.caEnglish
    11·
    8 months ago

    Didn’t they advertise this as one of the benefits of buying a pixel phone?

    Less than a year and it’s gone… Not that it was much of a feature in the first place