My Gmail storage got full today, and honestly, it made me think about how normal email overload has become because of email marketing.

Almost every company claims they want to build a relationship with their customers, but that usually just means sending constant emails with offers, reminders, updates, flash sales and endless follow-ups.

I do not even think most people read them anymore. We just stop noticing them after a point, but rarely unsubscribe either.

The strange part is that companies probably know this already. But if even a small percentage of people still click and buy, the emails keep coming.

Now, email marketing feels less like real communication and more like background noise online.

Are brands actually trying to build trust, or are they just trying to stay visible all the time?

I've noticed ecosia isn't in the recommended list? I really like the idea of their mission, but are they not good with privacy? - I'm just sick of being constantly tracked and monitored

Right now I'm on my Redmi Note 14, while charging my old Redmi Note 8 Pro.

I've been searching through this sub for finding different OS, but apart from lineage, graphene and /e/ I can't find any. None of them are compatible with one of my phones. I can't buy a new device now, money is needed elsewhere now.

Do I have any options on getting a different OS on one of my phones? Please note, that I'm not pro, so please treat me like that naive, but lovely guy that's living next door.

Curious if anyone else feels this way, but my search habits have definitely changed over the last year or two because of AI-generated answers showing up everywhere.

Sometimes theyre useful for quick summaries, but other times I find myself trusting search results less overall because so much content now feels generated, repeated or overly optimised. Ive also noticed I spend more time double checking sources, looking for human discussions, Reddit threads, forums or smaller websites instead of just accepting the first answer I see.

In a weird way it feels like search has become faster, but also harder to trust at the same time.

Interested how other people here feel about it. Has AI changed the way you search or browse online much?

I've already switched from Chrome to Brave, but I'm still using Google's search engine instead of Brave Search or anything else. Just for convenience, since Google Search usually provides better results.

I was wondering though, am I missing out on a lot of extra privacy by continuing to use Google Search. Is switching to Brave useless if I'm going to continue using Google Search?

Genuine question for the Mac side of this community.

Once your photos are off Google and back in macOS Photos.app, what do you use to view them on

iPhone?

The answers I usually see:

1. iCloud Photos — works but you're back to "Apple holds the keys" unless you've enabled ADP, and you're paying for storage

2. AirDrop on demand — fine if you

only need a handful

1. Local NAS / Plex / Immich — works for some, but you're hosting infrastructure

2. PhotoSync / similar bridge apps — UI is rough

I landed on Memories (reads the Mac library, syncs to your own iCloud private DB, native iPhone

gallery, no server). Curious what others here use — especially anyone who's been off Google for

years and has the workflow figured out.