Farewell .Mac. Thanks for everything:

I've been using Apple's .Mac service for a few years now.

Initially, I liked it for several user friendly reasons; Mail, server space for uploading and transferring files, Video conferencing, photo-sharing, iSyncing everything and their early iWeb blogging tools.

It cost me about 60 quid a year, but, thanks to Web 2.0, I won't be renewing my account when it falls due.

Why? Well, there are just too many good free/low cost alternatives now to ignore.

For photo's Flickr is a no-brainer.
For blogging iWeb's somewhat cumbersome tools are no match for the elegance of Typepad.
For file sharing/remote file storage, Mediafire is now my digital filing cabinet of choice.
For mail, in addition to my domain specific accounts, GMail rocks.
Ditto Google's Calendar which is a very cool tool in my book.
Skype now supports video calling, so adios iChat.
del.icio.us now organises my bookmarks, (and my memory) like nothing else.

In some respects, I will miss .Mac, in that they were definitely ahead of the game in terms of integrating OS applications across the web, with access from home on on the road.

But life, (and web solutions). move on, and I think .Mac is showing it's age somewhat.

I also think, it's a sign of the times of the growing integration of 'pick n mix' Web 2.0 in all our lives, and of the  demise of the branded, 'walled-garden' mentality of the original Web 1.0 land grab.

Comments

[Leon Jacobs]

Interesting. I was faced with the to renew/not renew conundrum a few months ago. The majority of services I don't use. But the email is pretty good. I like the mac.com domain in my address and the ability to set up multiple aliases. The other reason for renewing was the ease of syncing contacts with phone, .Mac and computer.

Also, I use an MBP, an old Powerbook at home and a Final Cut station at work and because of .Mac, all my contacts, email and bookmarks are always there.

I was a bit disappoined that .Mac didn't get a bit of the ol' Jobs treatment in San Francisco last month, but I guess iPhone was just too big for anything else to fit into the Keynote. Even Leopard got glanced over.

What features in a .Mac 2.0 in Leopard would make you stay?