For billions of people, the internet is synonymous with one company: Google. Open Chrome, type into the search box, click the first result, repeat. Need email? Gmail. Maps? Google Maps. Videos? YouTube. Documents? Google Docs. Without even thinking, we route our entire digital lives through a single corporate funnel.
Technically, nothing about the internet requires Google. DNS resolves domains, not Google. Browsers don’t have to funnel queries to them. But because the defaults are sticky, Google has become a psychological border checkpoint for the web — a real-time map of humanity’s habits, questions, and fears.
Centralization means control. Google not only collects data for advertising; it shapes what information people see, which sites thrive or vanish, which questions are “suggested” into your brain. A single company should not be the arbiter of what the internet is.
Going “off Google” doesn’t have to be instant. It’s a gradual severance, step by step:
Once you step off the default path, you realize: the internet is bigger than the Google funnel. You can choose your own exit node (your own VPN server). You can choose your own tools. You can be sovereign in your browsing, your data, and your identity.
Google doesn’t have to be the border guard between you and the web. You can choose otherwise. And once you start, the feeling is unmistakable: freedom.
Related: Run Your Own WireGuard VPN