Re: Pipe dream
Indeed, we are getting ALOT of really neat stuff, try living with out even some of it, (e.g. Google Maps, or Google Search) for just a couple of days, and trying OSM and Bing, and you will see how bad things really are without Google.
Your best bet is go read the privacy policy, we aware of what you are giving up for all this free stuff, work out what you don't like about it (e.g. Location Tracking) and opt out of it. It really is as simple as that.
Personally I find Location Tracking really useful, but then I have nothing to hide...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
