Moving 12 years of email from GMail to FastMail
I'm a FastMail customer. Here's some things I like and why I switched from Gmail and Google Apps:<p><pre><code>   - better shortcuts in the web interface
   - the mobile web interface is actually good
   - can import email by IMAP
   - POP links actually work, Gmail's POP links are broken
   - IMAP is better implemented
   - Gmail limits IMAP to 15 max connections and 
     each folder ends up being a connection
   - CardDAV works and has good picture resolution,
     when I was on Google Apps they were limited to 80px
   - FastMail's Sieve filters are very flexible
   - on folders vs tags, I like folders more, because then
     I can import my huge work email as a backup without
     polluting my searches and my archive
   - Google Apps email aliases limited to 30 per user, which is 
     pretty dumb and insufficient if you have a couple of domains
   - FastMail does sub-domain email aliasing, which is awesome,
     as now each user account I have has its own email; Gmail
     only does "plus" aliasing, but that's obvious and problematic
</code></pre>
Part of this decision was also a switch from Google Drive to Dropbox: Dropbox supports Linux, Google Drive does not.<p>On the matter of privacy, Google is simply too big and has access to too much info.
They have your searches, often representing your secret desires, your video/music preferences, your favorite locations and habits, your travel itinerary, your voice, your chats, your G+ likes, your email, your purchases, etc.<p>And don't get me wrong, personally I've never seen many big companies as competent and as non-evil as Google. I also worked with their AdX and I can tell you that from the advertiser's perspective, Google discloses much less information than others in the business. But they don't have to be evil right now, they simply have to store that info and analyze it later, sell it, etc. And consider that the info in question is enough to determine with accuracy if somebody is pregnant, male or female, black or gay, as in things that in the right context can get one injured or killed.<p>In other words you can use Google's stuff, but reducing their area of knowledge and not placing all your eggs in the same basket is always wise.