I respectfully disagree. The only reason Google supposedly has us ...
in a position where in many cases we have no choice but to use many of their products because they are the only available in some cases ...
... is because we the people have willingly and without thinking things through bought into their sublimely delivered propoganda. All instinct of self-preservation has been killed off, like the evil Monsanto's Roundup on weeds, by their decades of mass manipulation of society.
People must ask themselves: why am I willing to sell my soul for mere convenience?
If I may ask, what Google products do you feel are the only ones available?
I agree with what you are saying.google drive is the only one I really use anymore, and I dont know of any other word processor that saves with every keystroke on an external server, I have lost too much work in word documents that I cant use it anymore.
However, lets remember that those of us who can figure out steemit are in like the top 1% of technical knowlege lol
Google is still the most user friendly option out there, and since most people arent tech wizzards, its really the only option available to them right now.
Even looking at a youtube alternative like Dtube, it is incredibly buggy and has a lot of problems, the average user is not going to stick around for that
I believe in supporting alternative platforms, and that is why I am here, but we need to remember that most of the internet is barely technically literate, and they are going to use what is in front of them and what they can figure out
So even if they dont have a literall monopoly on the technology, they still seem like the only option to the basic user