This is part of IEEE Spectrum's special report on the battle for the future of the social Web.

If you’re reading this article right now, the chances are good that you’ve recently done business with Google. Maybe you got here via Google Search. Maybe you’re currently signed in to Gmail. Even if you don’t have a Google account, Google Analytics is likely tracking your movements on this site right now.

Google is in the business of data collection, and we, the users, provide the company with its raw source of wealth and power. Google may have entered this world a simple search engine, but the company has grown and evolved to become the core of our online lives.

At a panel on search engines in 2009, a Microsoft executive said that using Google is like smoking cigarettes: "It’s a habit that’s going to be difficult to give up." He was talking about switching search engines, but the difficulties of breaking the Google habit increase exponentially for people who also rely on Google Docs, the Chrome browser, or an Android phone.

Just a few short weeks ago, I was one such person. I used all these products and services daily. This wasn’t planned; my dependence on Google just...happened. One day I signed up for an e-mail account, and a couple of years later, I found myself linking it to an online calendar. Before long, I was using over a dozen services at both work and home. Because I already had one account (to which I was nearly always signed in), it was easy to take new products for a spin. Was I still actively choosing to be a Google customer, or was I effectively locked in for good?

I decided to put my own dependence on Google to the test. The plan was simple—to the best of my ability, I would sever my relationship with Google. I vowed to stop doing business with Google by no longer providing it information. Could I go Google-free without losing my digital quality of life?

My plan was to cut off my data stream to Google from three primary sources: my Google account, my search history, and my trail of browsing across the Web.