I Fired Google

Overall sentiment on Google Home / Gemini

• Many report a sharp decline in usefulness since the shift to Gemini and recent “upgrades.”
• Complaints: excessive verbosity, multiple follow‑up questions to simple queries, difficulty interrupting it, and inconsistent behavior.
• Previously deterministic commands (music selection, calls, timers, navigation) now often produce wrong or random results, sometimes requiring multiple corrections.
• Quality is described as fluctuating over time, with some suspecting cost throttling; others just say “it sucks.”
• A minority like the new Gemini-based Google Home, calling the old version “lobotomized” by comparison.

Voice assistants in general (Google, Alexa, Siri)

• Common core use cases: music, weather, timers, alarms, simple reminders, smart lights; many say assistants peaked years ago for these basics.
• Attempts to make them “smarter” are widely seen as making core flows worse: upselling features, ad surfaces, long explanations, “engagement” prompts.
• Alexa and Echo devices are criticized for unsolicited “by the way” tips and even display ads; some users abandoned them entirely, though one notes a voice command to disable that behavior.
• Siri and other assistants are perceived as having regressed from earlier, more deterministic intent systems.
• Lack of documentation and discoverability of advanced commands is a major frustration; some would happily learn a “verbal DSL” but can’t.

Alternatives and workarounds

• Some users are going “as analog as possible”: mechanical timers, no assistants.
• Others move between big ecosystems (Google → Alexa), while critics argue this just swaps one problematic megacorp for another.
• A few are building local, privacy‑preserving systems: wake‑word devices tied to local LLMs, custom APIs, and self‑hosted smart home setups.

Privacy, control, and surveillance

• Concerns raised about 24/7 audio collection and lack of clear data‑control options, especially with Gemini training on user chats.
• Some describe fully “firing” Google (search, mail, photos, etc.) in favor of privacy‑focused or self‑hosted alternatives.

Critique of the article/site and broader context

• Multiple comments slam the article’s site for aggressive ads, pop‑ups, and anti–ad‑block behavior, calling it an example of the very “enshittification” it criticizes.
• Several note the writing style resembles LLM‑generated text (repetitions, dramatic cadence).
• Others see the piece as significant because it comes from a mainstream, non‑tech blog—evidence that “regular” users are now fed up with Google’s direction.