Outlook or Google

[K_and_I]

I'm looking for some input from you kind folks. First, a little background. I have been in a work environment that required all employee's calendars to be in Outlook so meetings, etc could be arranged through the Exchange server. I'm getting ready to retire and have been reviewing options for keeping contacts and calendars synced to both my laptop and smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S7, if that matters). I do have a personal version of MS Outlook on my laptop, and have all of the information there. In investigating the options, it seems that keeping the info synced on both phone and laptop requires me to migrate to Google Calendar/Contacts or pay for a 3rd party app to keep them in sync. I see a few +- to both ways, and thought I'd put it out here for your input. I know there are a number of tech gurus here. Any thoughts?
TIA

[007matman]

Where I work we just made the conversion from MSOffice to Google for pretty much everything.

Google is fine. You can import from MS Outlook and import just about everything. For standard home use I wouldn't think you would see any issues.

Best thing is to go all-in on one platform though. You will have issues if you don't.

[ependydad]

If you have to put Google in the middle, I really so no reason why you would mess with Outlook at all then.

[K_and_I]

Originally Posted by ependydad

If you have to put Google in the middle, I really so no reason why you would mess with Outlook at all then.

If I go the Google route, I won't use Outlook. Was looking for others recommendations on what they use and differences.
Thanks for responding to you both.

[SailorSam20500]

I use Outlook. The only reason I log onto my Google account is to access apps in the Play store.


I have loaded the Outlook app on my Android phone and use it for e-mail, calendar, and contact management. It auto-magically syncs to my laptop.


I'm just uncomfortable with one mega-tech company holding all information about me. Bad enough they store and analyze every search you do for information. That and I understand how Outlook works. Google is different (I have used it at customer sites) and I just never got comfortable navigating thru.

[K_and_I]

Originally Posted by SailorSam20500

I use Outlook. The only reason I log onto my Google account is to access apps in the Play store.


I have loaded the Outlook app on my Android phone and use it for e-mail, calendar, and contact management. It auto-magically syncs to my laptop.


I'm just uncomfortable with one mega-tech company holding all information about me. Bad enough they store and analyze every search you do for information. That and I understand how Outlook works. Google is different (I have used it at customer sites) and I just never got comfortable navigating thru.

That is some of my thinking. I've been using Outlook for years, and also have some concerns about all of the info Google keeps.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by K_and_I

If I go the Google route, I won't use Outlook. Was looking for others recommendations on what they use and differences.
Thanks for responding to you both.

We use Google for everything- heck, I'm using Google Chrome right now for this. Though, I do have concerns over the amount of information they gather and hold.

We use Gmail for email.

We use Google Calendars for syncing information across multiple devices and for keeping separate calendars for different things (wife, me, camping reservations, birthdays & anniversaries, etc). It lets us share specific calendars with other people (daughter and family get the camping reservations one).

We don't do much with Google Contacts and generally just keep those on our phones with iCloud backups. We don't share them across devices.

Google Spreadsheets and Docs for access to them across devices.

[Reverse_snowbird]

We use Google for the following reasons
- all the email, calendar, drive, maps, etc. is kept on their server so it's accessible from all my devices
- Google automatically syncs my devices... if I read a book on my Kindle, I can continue reading it on my phone at the same page (as long as I have a mobile signal.) Same for other applications like mail and calendar, photos, etc.
- Using the Calendar, I can set up a separate calendar for trips and share it online with other people on the same trip or people at home without sharing all my other personal calendar events.

Do I like all the info they collect? Not really, but the convenience outweighs that.

[NMWildcat]

K_and_I, do you get to keep your work email and exchange acct as part of your retirement? We did, and didn't have to change anything other than not using work calendars anymore. Just use the appropriate app or website on your mobile devices to keep in synch.

If not, I would probably just move everything to Google and be done with it. As others have said, very easy to migrate.

[007matman]

Guys.. if someone wants to Snoop and read your emails they're going to do it regardless of the service you use.

Don't think just because you are using Outlook it's safe. That email likely passed through a dozen servers before it ended up on your device.

Microsoft is just as capable of snooping as Google is.

Just ask Hillary.

[pgandw]

Originally Posted by SailorSam20500

I use Outlook. The only reason I log onto my Google account is to access apps in the Play store.


I have loaded the Outlook app on my Android phone and use it for e-mail, calendar, and contact management. It auto-magically syncs to my laptop.


I'm just uncomfortable with one mega-tech company holding all information about me. Bad enough they store and analyze every search you do for information. That and I understand how Outlook works. Google is different (I have used it at customer sites) and I just never got comfortable navigating thru.

X2

Fred W

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by 007matman

Guys.. if someone wants to Snoop and read your emails they're going to do it regardless of the service you use.

Don't think just because you are using Outlook it's safe. That email likely passed through a dozen servers before it ended up on your device.

Microsoft is just as capable of snooping as Google is.

Just ask Hillary.

If you really dig in and read the sometimes hard to find "fine print" for any online data storage you will find the owners of the servers has ownership of your data and reserves the right to do with it as they wish. Whether that is the usage of your photos without your permission or complete deletion of stored data without notification.

[Skip12]

I prefer outlook for work, where I've often got alot of things going on at once. Using google for work, composing 5 emails and dealing with 5 Hangouts at once is tough.

I like google for personal stuff where I'm usually single tasking and getting one thing done at a time.

[tyler811]

Google allows third party vendors to scan read your email for advertising purposes. They say don't sell your personal information but then Facebook says the same thing. Both have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by tyler811

Google allows third party vendors to scan read your email for advertising purposes. They say don't sell your personal information but then Facebook says the same thing. Both have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

If you're on the internet at all, your info and usage data is out there. True, some apps are worse for data collection, but they all do it....

[tyler811]

You are correct to some extent NM, with websites putting tracking cookies into your computer and the every changing TOS agreements that many software companies have.

I don't allow cookies in my pic and use NordVPN when I go online. I use Crapcleaner after every browsing session. But with rootkits and keyloggers, Meltdown and Spectre it's getting hard to see stay clean. Home routers leaving the production line with purposely made backdoors and wireless encryption being a fallacy its all an illusion. But that is a topic for another thread. I don't want to hijack this thread.

[tyler811]

Originally Posted by tyler811

You are correct to some extent NM, with websites putting tracking cookies into your computer and the every changing TOS agreements that many software companies have.

I don't allow cookies in my pic and use NordVPN when I go online. I use Crapcleaner after every browsing session. But with rootkits and keyloggers, Meltdown and Spectre it's getting hard to see stay clean. Home routers leaving the production line with purposely made backdoors and wireless encryption being a fallacy its all an illusion. But that is a topic for another thread. I don't want to hijack this thread.

Sorry darn spell check and sentence filler. You are correct NM

[DKRITTER]

Honestly, it doesn't really matter.

If you're going to stay with an Android phone Google might be a little tiny bit better but not enough to make a difference.

I like Outlook on my laptop so I use Outlook but as many people prefer Google.