I've recently left gmail for fastmail and couldn't be happier. I've been using FF over chrome, and I typically use startpage over google search (I've used DuckDuckGo as well, but I think SP is superior). For me it isn't really because I have some overarching issue with google themselves, it's just that over time their products have been turning to crap. I do have smidgen of distrust for google, but ultimately, it's what G+ did to their products and their turn away from being user centric that turned me off. I will say that google's search is still the best out there, and sometimes I find myself flipping over and doing a search on google, but overall I don't really miss much. If there's anyone out there who is interested in fastmail, feel free to drop me a message. It may not serve your needs if you really need tight integration into google apps, but if you're just looking for a strong pop/imap server, their web UI is superb (far superior to gmail at this point).