Posted 04.24.2012 at 1:55 pm
22 Comments
Google Drive
Google
Google has been rumored to be working on a cloud storage service for about as long as we've known what cloud storage is, and today the company finally unveiled it: Google Drive. It has a couple of nice features that competitors like Dropbox, MobileMe, SkyDrive and all the others don't, but the main selling point seems to be the same selling point as most other new Google services: hell, you're already using Google. Why not add this? So we're curious: will you?
Primer time! If you already know what I mean when I say "it's like Dropbox, but from Google," skip this paragraph and go on to the next one. (It's like a choose your own adventure game, without adventure, and with information!) Everyone else, here's what's going on: Cloud services give you a folder on your computer into which you drag whatever you'll want to access later, whether it's documents, photos, music, videos, or anything else. That's synced automatically to your cloud drive, out in a server somewhere, and you can access or share those files from any supported device (which includes computers, tablets, and smartphones). It's great! You don't have to worry about where your stuff is anymore, because you can always get to it, and you don't need to worry about emailing attachments that are too big, because you can just share files from your cloud drive, which has a whole bunch of space.
Google Drive doesn't bring many crazy-new features to cloud storage, though there are a few new ideas. We're actually pretty excited about the search functions, which might turn out to be a major differentiating factor. There's this image recognition element, so Google Drive will look through even scanned images with text, or files like PDFs that aren't normally searchable, and index all of that as well, which is something no other service has. At the Drive demonstration, a Google rep took a picture of a typewritten paper document with a phone, then sent it to Google Drive, where it was scanned and recognized. Pretty cool stuff.
And it promises to be nicely integrated with all of the Google services you love, like Gmail and YouTube and Google Docs, and also with those other services you're aware of, like Google Plus. You can open and view, says Google, over 30 kinds of files, including Photoshop and video files, even if you don't have Photoshop or video editing software on whatever device you're accessing those files with. And you can share and comment on those files directly from Gmail and Google Plus (though it's worth mentioning that many Gmail clients support other cloud services, like the Sparrow client with Dropbox).
Google Drive is apparently available now, though I see a button that says "Your Google Drive is not ready yet" on the Drive page, for Mac, PC, and Android. iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad are soon to come--they were used at the demo, so they're probably not far off. Drive starts off with 5GB for free, though you can upgrade--$2.50 a month gets you 25GB, and pricing goes all the way up to 16 terabytes of storage. (This is basically the average price, though Microsoft's SkyDrive offers a ridiculous 100GB for free.)
So here's what we're wondering: will you guys use this? Will Dropbox users drop Dropbox (eek) and switch? Will the fact that Drive is thoroughly integrated into the Google ecosystem be enough to tempt those who were never tempted by cloud storage before?
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Answer: No
Oh heck yes! Having two-factor authentication help protect my files is a huge plus for me. I already am owned by Google. They may as well have my files too.
NO and Never, currently if the company goes bankrupt or is seized due to illegal activies your data is gone. It's not like a bank where you have a safety deposit box and by law you will get it back. Your data will become the property of whoever gets the servers and your are SOL.
do a search on a company called (Mega Upload) and see what happened to their customer's data.
Maybe, if it gets proper Android integration (by this I mean in other apps as well, much like so many third-party Android apps currently do with Dropbox, or very ideally if I could just have a folder which was navigatable by any file explorer, much like cloud storage integration often works in Windows).
Price is MUCH better than Dropbox - the huge downside to Dropbox was their laughable amount for free, and then exorbitant dollars required for even the most basic upgrade. $2.50 for 25GB is the price of an app or two, and is very doable if it came to needing that amount of space.
Downside is that it invlolves givng my files to Google, who of course will then scan everything I own (for my own benefit of searching them, of course *eye roll*) - for this reason I will definitely not be using Drive unless it becomes so useful that I just cave out of laziness.
And @CCromby obviously that is not going to happen to Google, any comparison between them and MU is silly.
Exactly CCromby.
Every time I clicked a Mega Upload link it said the file was removed for copyright infringement. So they did not tolerate illegal files. The company and customers got screwed.
You think Google is in any better position, already hosting billions of links to pirated content?
I prefer to keep my files where I can delete them, then melt the media.
I am amused of the obvious, which get forgotten or just overlooked. You know you email account; the network administrator has access to it. And if you store anything on a remote server, 'Google cloud', yes the network administrator has access to it too.
It is funny, how people thing their accounts are really private, when in fact they are not.
Now if you email account or remote hard drive account gets hacked that is your problem, your loss and not the administrators, unless you are paying him for that account and specific exactly what he is liable for.
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!
@Robot
So you think as long as Google has some of our data, they may as well have all of it? I don't agree with that. I prefer to keep the vast majority of my data private.(backed up offline or deleted). Its bad enough they have my email.
i'll use it but i must voice one carefully worded comment: holy crap that logo looks like the abstergo logo!
to mars or bust!
My point is not that they own your data property, but the fact that network administrators can read it. Many people do not realize this is possible.
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!
"This is basically the average price, though Microsoft's SkyDrive offers a ridiculous 100GB for free"
And where is this free 100GB?
SkyDrive only gives amounts that large for web-based storage - it's services that allow useful syncing only give 5GB (updated this week to 7GB).
If it includes the same service as other properties of Googles where you telesign in...then YES!!!!! Sign me up!
Just buy a one time fee thumb drive or better still a harddrive. Creepy!
The entertainment industry is already attacking file sharing sites for copyright infringement, they will going after the cloud next, they will be searching your files for protected files.
I'll totally use it.
If it's really like dropbox, then losing files is of no concern. Files not uploaded online (that is, simply moved to your convenient cloud folder) are stored both on your computer and the cloud, so they can be accessed offline as well. Meaning if the cloud is deleted, you still have the large majority of your files.
The Mega upload comments are silly.
Plus, if you don't want Google (or anyone else) to have it, then don't put it "in the cloud." Photos, homework, etc is not useful to anyone. However, if you feel like keeping photo copies or your Social Security card, driver's license, and Passport on there along with a text file of your bank account and credit card info on your Google drive then good luck.
LoL
Thanks Google, for giving us a legitimate reason to say NO to Drive.
The TOS says Google owns whatever you upload.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57420551-93/who-owns-your-files-on-google-drive/?tag=mncol;morePosts
When Google offers you a "Drive" in their panel van you shout NO, run away and tell your parents.
To those saying no, how is this any different that the Apple's Cloud?
@johnt007871 You have most notable (if not most logical) point in these comments.
I do not like the concept of Apple cloud, Google cloud, Microsoft cloud. For me, I keep my important documents on my home hard drive and back up on a second hard drive. I use and email account that supports virus checking and I have two types of virus checking on my home computer, with my firewall turned on.
I empty my temporary files and cookies all the time and regularly scan my computer for virus.
If you upload your files to anything on the internet, the network administration has full access to read and copy those files..... Now most people in the world are good. But there are still those small percentages of people who are not. It is possible for a network administrator to do a bad thing, they are human ya know....
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!
Oh, one more point. When you upload and presever your files onto some one else cloud, server, computer, you a hoping they protect them and they never get a virus or get hacked.
There is no guarantee how strong they protect your files.
And if you files get copied or stolen from a virus or hacker, it your loss and not the cloud network administrator washes their hands of the responsiblity....
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!
Well, it is a nice idea, in principle, but I have just read that the Federal Gummit is enacting legeslation to empower federal enforcement agencies to "raid" my cloud data.
And, the recent director of DARPA now works for Google ... Hmmm.
Furthermore, ... I wonder about the security and the ownership of my own intellectual properties, stored in the cloud, BOTH while I am alive AND after I die ... Will my assigns (my estate) have legal access to my accounts (data), even LONG after my death ?
Does PhotoBucket OWN any aspect of the photos I have uploaded ? ... I do not ALWAYS get around to reading ALL of the various (and voluminous) online license and privacy agreements, even if I *did* understand the language, thereof.
Furthermore, such agreements are FREQUENTLY changed or ammended and I do not always have the time to "re-read and re-authorize" ever-changing agreements (with ALL that legal fine-print).
Just some thots. In answer ?? ... I trust Google NO LESS than any other online "storage space provider" but I would think pretty hard about storing anything that is TRULY valuable or important, to me or to my family, in the cloud.
=Hmmmm=