Checking out Google One

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I remember a long long time ago I signed up for my first Google account. In fact, I think I moved my business over to Google Workspace (it wasn't called that then) before I ever created my own personal gmail account.

Google used to have some pretty liberal policies when it came to things like storage space and things like that. As a "Google Apps for Education" (that's what it was called), my users had access to unlimited storage space.

Likewise, if you were the owner of a Pixel phone, you had unlimited storage for all of your photos and videos taken from that phone in the Google cloud. I am still a pretty big fan of the Google Pixel phones. There is a good chance I will purchase a 7 as my next phone. The only reason I am using a OnePlus phone right now is because the latest model of Pixel wasn't available last time I upgraded.

Unfortunately, we all probably know that Google has since back-tracked on those generous storage offerings.

Due to that fact, I recently signed up for a Google One account.

Now, I know what you are probably thinking... Why would I want to give more money to company that already has so much. On top of that they sell my data and information. I don't disagree with you, but the fact is they are going to do that stuff anyway. I don't honestly expect any modicum of privacy these days. We were just talking about that last night in the @brofund Discord chat.

With that in mind, I went all in on Google One.

Actually, for $25 a year, it is one of the best deals out there I think.


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If you are looking at the chart above, I am currently enrolled in the standard plan. It's only $30 per year and it gives me a lot of benefits.

One of the coolest things about the plan is you can share the plan with up to five other people. This gives everyone you care about a lot of benefits. I have my main account enrolled, my secondary account enrolled, and then @mrsbozz's account enrolled. I still have two "licenses" available that I am not even using. I share them with my friends and family on a temporary basis when they need something.

Besides the extra storage space which quite honestly would be enough on its own, they have been adding additional features.

Bard is Googles new AI assistant. I got an email the other day that I can sign up for the wait list for Bard. Hopefully they have the bugs worked out from when they first launched it and ended up being a laughing stock due to the blatant errors it made.

You might notice for the higher tiers they just released VPN by Google One. While I already pay for a subscription to NORD, I am definitely going to keep my eye on this one. If anything the upgrade to 2 TB kind of makes the $70 extra per year worth it. For now though I am happy to keep the standard plan.

It's likely I wouldn't think about upgrading until I start running out of space.

What really has me excited about Google One is that fourth bullet point.

The fact that they introduced all of the cool photo editing tools that they are advertising on the new Pixel phone to Google One subscribers is pretty awesome.

I'm looking forward to digging in and playing around with it. Keep your eye out in the future for a post dedicated solely to that.

I really can't wait to see what Google adds next for One subscribers. Even if they jacked the price up to $50 per year, I think it would still be worth it.


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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced



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37 comments
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I remember having a google account before google was cool. If I still had that email it'd be over 20 years old. I had to get rid though because not only was the name trashy but it was full of total spam lol

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Google's spam filtering now is pretty on point. I remember I bought a Barracuda box back when I ran my own server and I think the built in Google stuff does just as good of a job. I've had my Google account for a long time too. Looks like my first email sent from it was back in 2010, so not quite as old as I would have guessed.

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Ohh, not that much earlier than you. I created my first gmail in 2002. Had to change it in 2008 when I stopped drinking and made a beeline for a career lol

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Haha, that sounds like a good reason. I have a Yahoo account that I have had much much longer!

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I opened a google mail account very early on and still have it I wonder how old it is

I hadn’t read about this service they offer I will check it out

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I was just doing a Google search to see if I could find out how old my account is. It doesn't appear you can look it up that way, but you can just go in and see when the first sent message you had was. I know a lot of people don't like giving more money to big companies like that, but I think this one is worth it. I also think the Apple upgrade for $25 per year is worth it too. If you are an Apple guy. I bought it for both of my nieces.

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I did that and my oldest email is from 2007, but the oldest email was one to myself reminding me I had deleted all older emails not sure whyI did that LOL

We do all use apple phones so maybe I should compare options and see what is best for me

I should also look into VPNs I dont use one at the moment but guess I should

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I used mine VPN all the time when I am traveling. At home I am not as worried about it. For the increased storage alone, the Apple upgrade is worth it I think. That's the main reason I bought it for my nieces. They kept saying they were running out of iCloud space.

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Yeah now that I think about it on my work laptop I had VPN, and as you say since I am at home all the time now I really dont need it

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I also created my first email ten years ago today and used it for a while and then I got an iPhone, so I'm using an iPhone until today.

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I can appreciate that. I am definitely a Google fanboy, but I have a soft spot for Apple too. I'd probably never buy an iPhone, but I have a Mac Mini running in my office at home.

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Just because we have been conditioned not to expect privacy doesn't mean we should accept it.

Having said that, I currently use the free tier to automatically back up photos from my phone. The biggest thing I used to like about that is how it would automatically create slide shows, animated gifs and other neat things for you. The problem is that there is no convenient way to turn off backing up videos too so that space gets eaten up pretty quick (even 2TB will go pretty quick with even the occasional video). You can manually move videos around and then delete from the cloud (which automatically deletes from your device which is another "feature" I don't like) but it's just a pain. I would be happy if it just backed up my photos. As it is, it's becoming too inconvenient to use because I'm constantly having to manually delete stuff to avoid running out of space for google mail.

Other than storage, I don't really care about most of the other benefits. I guess the VPN might be nice but from a company not known for it's privacy they seem a questionable choice for a VPN. I'm an Amazon Prime subscriber and they give free photo backups that work just as well...and it is unlimited too.

I've been using Samsung phones ever since my first smart phone (a Galaxy S2) and I've always been pretty happy. I've considered the Pixel in the past though. I think that's the only other Android phone I've seriously considered.

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I really like the Pixel. It has been a consistently solid phone for me with all the models that I have owned. I don't hate the One Plus either, but I like the Pixel a bit more. My wife moved from a Pixel to the S21+ and I think she will be moving back to a Pixel with her next phone. I have Amazon Prime too. I like having that extra layer of protection though.

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I still have workspace. I need to jump ship eventually, just not sure to what.

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You only have a handful of options if you want all the features.

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I have for many years had an account with Google for their GDrive service, so is it worth me upgrading to this, all of my email is there and many of my photos are backed up there, despite the fact I've no Android kit at all.

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That makes sense. I moved my organization over a while ago, so it just makes sense for me to keep using it. My wife does pretty much everything in Google Docs.

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I've used Google storage for years. I may have to upgrade as my 100GB is nearly full. I sync most of my important files on there to avoid data loss and I consider it good value. I got a Gmail account about the time it started and have used it ever since alongside my personal site. It works well with my Android phone and convenience is a big selling point.

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Yeah, I totally agree with everything you said there. It is almost a given it is going to be beneficial when you have an Android phone.

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I have my free 6tb with my Office Subscription, which I need for work. MS Family plan is exceptional value, too.

I'll probably (inevitably) upgrade my google storage when my inbox finally gets over that tipping point where I need more storage, but also need to retain my existing archive of emails and various attachments.

I don't see that time coming for many more years.

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If you have a Microsoft subscription byou are likely set. I have access to an account but I never really use it. I have migrated fully to Google Docs. It does 99% of the stuff I need.

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I have too many years of Excel behind me to learn how to do everything I know how to do in it in Google Sheets. :D

Sunk cost fallacy, for sure.

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You'd actually be surprised how similar they are. I don't blame you though. My business director will always need Excel, so we will likely always pay for it.

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I dont like the way Google Sheets handles Pivot Tables. That's my biggest bug bear, as I can never get it to accept tables that are refreshed with new rows to be part of the pivot table for a static report, or some such.

In my day job, I use a lot of PowerBI, PowerQuery and SQL, so that's another rabbit hole all together.

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Yeah, it sounds like you have some pretty specialized needs. I wouldn't be shocked if there is an add on for sheets that allows you to do what you want, but honestly what's the point of fiddling with it if Excel does the job.

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I've been slowly implementing Python (and Pandas) into my data work, so perhaps one day, I won't even need a GUI :D

There's a certain joy to making a report or piece of analysis, delivering it, then never needing to do anything to maintain it ever again, unless business requirements change.

Unfortunately, they often do.

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That sounds way over my head! I haven't coded since college close to 25 years ago and I think the last language I used was either COBOL or Assembly.

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I've only been at it for about 9 months or so, It is surprisingly easy to pick up, but there's a pretty steep learning curve once you get beyond the basics.

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Yeah Bard is cool and I use it.
Google One is great too, I have shit loads of pics that are Google One has been a blessing for.

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Oh really? You signed up for the early access? I just responded to the email yesterday even though I got it quite some time ago. Despite their early setbacks, I think Google has the potential to be one of the leaders in AI.

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Yes whenever I got the email I signed up and then they gave me access a wee while ago. Google being Google I do too think they will be one of the leaders soon enough.

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That is cool. Still waiting for my approval.

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