brad 11 Nov 05

If you can find something equivalent that begins with O, you could add Basecamp and get OB/GYM

mk 11 Nov 05

As a Mac user, I could go for weeks without ever needing Microsoft’s products or services. However, I visit Yahoo and Google many times a day.

er, wait, I’m still using a Microsoft mouse with my Powerbook. Guess I’m at the GYM all the time after all.

KirinDave 11 Nov 05

Plenty!

Yahoo! and Microsoft are no problem to avoid for a mac user. Mighty Mouse, no MS products whatsoever. Yahoo!? Who needs ‘em? Certainly not me. My gmail is simply a discardable forwarder, I could do without it.

What’s trickier is replacing google search. But, with a healthy dose of alternative web services, it’s possible. I actually prefer AllTheWeb slightly over Google (I think it presents relevency beter, and it is less targetted by spammers). Of course, AllTheWeb uses Yahoo!’s index, so I dunno if that counts.

If you’re an Apple customer (and, admittedly, willing to shell out a bit of cash) then you can pretty much ignore everything but google.

Someone Somewhere 11 Nov 05

Lets be honest here Jason - if GYM offered to buy you out, if the price was reasonable - you’d sell.

me 11 Nov 05

i’d 2nd that.. honestly � i’d do the same..

andrew 11 Nov 05

I rarely visit Yahoo! and, apart from the discussion groups I joined, I’m not sure why I would visit.

I use Microsoft at work because that’s what’s provided. At home on my Mac, I use Word and Excel a bit simply because I have them, but I could move away fairly easily. In fact I bought the Mac a couple of years’ back exactly because I perceived that in the world outside big organisations, “standard” meant open web standards, not MS Office, and Apple makes that a lot easier than MS.

Search is nigh on indispensable, and I use Google out of habit. But again, show me another service that’s as simple, focussed and with similar coverage, and I could move without any pain.

Don Wilson 11 Nov 05

That cuts out my email, rss reader, news (at least ease of finding it), searching, finding humorous images, communication (MSN, YIM), Windows (development), etc.

Wow.

Jeff Croft 11 Nov 05

Being a Mac user makes it easier, but I believe I’d be fine without the GYM. I almost never fire up a Microsoft product. I rarley use Yahoo’s services, unless you count Flickr. I use Google, but as has been mentioned, it’s more out of habit than necessity. I have no doubt the other search engines could suffice.

Google and Yahoo (and occasionally even Microsoft) have products that make my life easier, but I don’t see any of the as indispensable. If I needed to, i could get by without them just fine.

Mark G. 11 Nov 05

Use Google every day.

Yahoo and Microsoft, I visit a couple times a year.

Like most people.

Jason Fried 11 Nov 05

Lets be honest here Jason - if GYM offered to buy you out, if the price was reasonable - you�d sell.

What did this question have to do with the post?

And yes, of course, every business has its price. We have ours. But “reasonable” varies from person to person, and from business to business, and from situation to situation.

Mark 11 Nov 05

I tell people that I could rely on Firefox, Google and 37S and need nothing else for a complete OS.

At this point I have 3 browser windows open all day long, two of which refresh constantly with the latest update:

Gmail.
Google homepage.
My Backpack.

As for Yahoo! and MS… I’ve never bought into Yahoo! and only hit it when following a link. I am, for the most part, employed as a Microsoft developer, so it’s hard to avoid them. I’m not doing MSN or Hotmail, though.

Ebrahim 11 Nov 05

Yahoo is my favorite engine and I visit is like 100+ times a day. MS is my OS, Office application, mouse, keyboard and browser, so I can’t actually survive my tech-life without it.

I could do without Google, since there are so many metasearches and other alternatives out there. More than that, I’m - like many others - starting to hate google..

Its only MY (microsoft-yahoo) for me!

sxates 11 Nov 05

I’m wondering what the point is? These companies provide valuable products, many for free. What harm comes in using them? I don’t get the desire to *work* to avoid them.

sxates 11 Nov 05

I’m wondering what the point is? These companies provide valuable products, many for free. What harm comes in using them? I don’t get the desire to *work* to avoid them.

andrew 12 Nov 05

> I don�t get the desire to *work* to avoid them.

In Microsoft’s case, it’s about the desire to manage *my* data — not Microsoft’s or Sony’s — in an open format — not a propriety binary format — and preferably with a simple, elegant application. I am reacting against what Microsoft offers and the philosophy that drives those offerings, not the company per se

n 12 Nov 05

I use google CONSTANTLY, yahoo never ever not even one of their properties. MS constantly also, via Outlook.

To echo a poster above, I could live with only 3 apps: Firefox (for access to Google), Eclipse (for work, has a browser inside but it’s no Firefox) and Outlook.

so GEM.

Kyle 12 Nov 05

Don’t have much use for MS on my Powerbook, could definitely live without Yahoo(in fact, I largely do), but would rather give up my left one than lose my Gmail account.

I’ve also started to grow fond of Google Reader, though it’s nowhere near as irreplaceable as Gmail. Gmail is the only online service that sticks out that I’d refuse to give up.

ephi 12 Nov 05

I rarely visit M even though probably my OS updater do so. But G and Y almost everyday (everytime I connected actually!)

Jens Meiert 12 Nov 05

Here’s the charts: Daily Google use, indirect daily Yahoo use (through its messenger, included in my Miranda IM client), and almost permanent Microsoft use (XP running at home and at work). Well, I’m a bad guy.

Jens Meiert 12 Nov 05

Huh, apparently cheating: Though I visit Google on a daily basis, I really rarely visit Yahoo’s and Microsoft’s sites. I just (have to) use some of their products.

tre 12 Nov 05

KirinDave,
i believe that alltheweb doesn’t only use yahoo’s index, it’s owned by overture, who in turned is owned by yahoo — thus, it’s basically yahoo. so, if you’re using alltheweb, you *are* using yahoo. ;)

A Noonie Moose 12 Nov 05

This just rubs me. The point of the Om article, from what I could see, was that the blogosphere is talking way too much about the so-called GYM and absolutely ignoring the other 8 million smaller online businesses out there.

Blog about what you want. It’s your place. But, really, I think you missed a great opportunity to pick up Om’s message and talk about the millions of little guys out there (excluding Odeo who seem to be able to get even get press for flatulence [thanks to the Google tie-in).

Jason Fried 13 Nov 05

A Noonie Moose, we’re all about small business. We talk about small business all the time. This post happened to be about big business. Actually, it wasn’t about “business” at all, it was just about services and software people have come to rely on.

adam 13 Nov 05

ummm… why should we avoid them? Because the little guys are jealous.

I dont use Microsoft or Yahoo often, but I do use Google, and I believe that they have done a lot for the web.

Dean 13 Nov 05

I have a Windows computer, so I use Microsoft for that. But I rarely use any Microsoft apps.

Yahoo, almost never. I occasionally check them out when I’m swayed by the buzz. But I never stay — there’s just way to much clutter over there.

I use Google many, many times a day.

Robert Scoble 13 Nov 05

I work for “M,” there I go talking about it again. At least I’m writing to you from a computer in the Palo Alto Apple store.

Jason: I’m scared of talk that you guys are gonna sell out to some bigger company (although I’m secretly hoping that Ray Ozzie and Bill G write a check to you and do exactly that).

Don’t sell out unless the bigger company is ready to let you run the show. What you are doing is wonderful. Please don’t just cash out and run.

Egor Kloos 14 Nov 05

I daily visit Yahoo and Google, so if I wanted torture myself by not visiting these sites, well domains actually, I might have to not go online at all. Visiting these ‘domains’ has become so habitual that I’d likely find myself in the GYM by no conscious fault of my own. For some odd reason, and not through some childish bias, I never seem to visit Microsoft domains. Tying in users to your community obviously has great commercial value.

btw. I visit this site regularly, so I could call it GYM37.

Kim Siever 14 Nov 05

I use the Office suite several times every day at work. I use Google Talk, GMail, Flickr, the Google toolbar, Yahoo! Groups, Picasa, the Google Sidebar, and Konfabulator. There are probably others I’ve forgotten.

Richard 14 Nov 05

I can easily go for months without Yahoo. If they fell off the face of the earth tomorrow, I wouldn’t be sad (or even notice, much)

The other 2, however are much harder to get away from. Google is my start page on my freaking Treo, for goodness sake.

Egor Kloos 15 Nov 05

Hmm, I forgot all about instant messaging. Silly me, so I do use a Microsoft domain daily. In fact I use all the major IM’s daily.
Is there such a thing as Internet anonymous?

novak 15 Nov 05

great thing to know:
MS: windows, office,
MS web: MSN, start, live
Yahoo: Flickr
Google: Desktop, Earth, Picasa
Google Web: Search, ig Talk,

novak 15 Nov 05

How about the Apple?
Don’t they caount as big bad guys as well? or are they in the beautiful people club and thus untouchable?