back to article Google drive cloud to rain on Apple, Dropbox parade

Never one to miss out on an up-and-coming tech trend, Google is all set to launch its very own cloud storage service, competing with the likes of Dropbox, Microsoft and Apple. People familiar with the matter were unable to keep schtum and spilled to the Wall Street Journal (paywall), telling it that the Chocolate Factory's new …

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  1. Graham Marsden
    Alert

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  2. Keep Refrigerated
    Angel

    Good for competition...

    In this sector I think they will be a welcome competitor and hopefully force some innovation. I think Dropbox probably has the most penetration but certainly not dominant yet.

    I like Dropbox though, it's going to take a lot for me to drop Dropbox - but I could certainly see GDrive being useful alongside.

    Being Google, it's likely GDrive will support Linux too - if you ask me this was a major boon to Dropbox - I've managed to scrape up a modest 5gb in referrals and they are mostly Windows users.

    In some technology niches, it pays to make sure Linux is well-supported as these people will be where the non-techies go to for recommendations (I'm looking at you SugarSync - you lost).

  3. shanz

    Adrive.com offers 50GB free

  4. Dems
    Thumb Up

    I hope it still leaves room for www.insynchq.com, even though their software is still a bit buggy, they are very active and respond to and fix issues very promptly.

    But i am looking forward to a google solution

  5. nojaket
    Holmes

    Cloud storage services as we know them now will soon shift down the stack to the platform level and leave space for real applications built on top. These applications will offer more than crude syncing and access. One example of these applications is Zoolz (www.zoolz.com). It is pretty fresh and promises integration with Facebook and other social networks, and sharing of storage space with colleagues and family members.

  6. Steve Farr
    Boffin

    This is news?

    GDrive evolved into GDocs then back into GDrive? Uh?

    I don't get it. I've been storing practically everything on this service since the beginning and never needed a Dropbox or iCloud. So why is this suddenly news?

    The thing that would make a difference is new and improved ways to manipulate stuff in the cloud. That too has been evolving since the beginning. A Chrome PDF printer which prints directly to the GDocs would be nice, as would improved Gmail integration with all my attachments going direct to GDocs so i never need to download to local storage - unless i really wanted to. Going the other way a sharing option which actually attaches files to email rather than links would be a nice "Burger King" option although i would activily discourage using it.

    GDocs is a great service. I have single paid account which i share among friends, family and colleagues who have G accounts. The only gripe i have is that it confuses Mac users who expect to download files directly from links without going to the GDocs page first and their email doesn't support the essential jump to the browser (Apple fanboys usually tell me its because Google is shit rather than bother to understand that the problem lies with Mac mail's inability to work properly with URLs).

    I wish there could be some kind of cloud storage standard so no one has to feel locked into their cloud be it GDocs, Skydrive, Dropbox or iCloud. So i should be able to link a file from GDocs in email and send it hotmail and it appear in the recipient Skydrive without ever needing to physically attach the file to the email and have it bounce around the internet in between. Once such a system was established, and email addresses were registered to cloud storage then you could do away with the email bit for simple file sharing.

    1. JohnsonVonJohnson

      Huh?

      These services, dropbox, iCloud, etc. allow you to store more than just documents.

      Mac mail supports URL click through to browser sessions, so I don't know what you're complaining about, maybe these folks aren't using Safari as their default browser. Not all Mac users are new to computers, in general.

      In Gdocs you can convert any document into a PDF without a "pdf printer" in by selecting a doc, clicking More, share, email as attachment. Then email it to yourself as a pdf using the "Attach as" drop down box.

      1. Steve Farr

        Uh ok.

        Thanks for the info on Safari - i'll mention that next time someone complains they can't access my public links.

        As for the pdf printer option i was really meaning printing from Chrome in general not just converting an existing GDoc. But i do take note of the pdf "email as attachment" - i shall investigate further, thanks.

  7. toadwarrior

    good but no thanks

    It's always good to have yet another solution to add to the competition but I'll stick with rsync.net for real back-ups and dropbox for sharing non sensitive documents.

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