121–130 of 221 posts
Google needs to provide very simple native syncing apps that are equivalent to or better then Dropbox's and at the same time support several different platforms out of the gate to draw people away from Dropbox.
I'm sure Dropbox would be horrified
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dropbox can take the approach of not worrying if they want. Standing on years of head start perhaps. However: File sync strikes me as a lot closer to email than . Additionally, it seems logical to build/ship GDrive right into android. I say again: I'd worry like hell.
Agreed. File sharing is the type of thing where you can't just rely on first-mover-advantage. Google has the ability and infrastructure to offer more space for free on more devices and platforms.
Yes, especially in a market where there are many, many users of computers who might have occasion to share files who have not used (or even heard of) any of the available file-sharing solutions yet. I am a sporadic user of Dropbox strictly for back-up of documents I produce, and a moderately frequent user of Google Docs for collaborative editing who knows a lot of other Google Docs users. I could see Google making huge gains in market share, turning it into tomorrow's "first mover" from the point of view of most users, for a file-sharing service.
Some similar product where we can install and manage our own servers.
I think services/sites can be divided into two when considering how/if people switch between them: (i) aggregate sites whose value is a (generally nonlinear) function of all users who use the site and (ii) personal sites whose impact is just for the person who uses it. The fact that I'm using Dropbox, too, doesn't provide any value to you (except of course economies of scale) YouTube, Flickr, YouTube, etc. are Type I…
You may be underestimating the prevalence of Dropbox shared folders, which make Dropbox into more type I.
What will kill Dropbox?: Some similar product where we can install and manage our own servers.
When I was in YC (same batch as Dropbox) this was a constant question. "What happens to Dropbox if Gdrive launches?" I don't actually remember what Drew and Arash thought, but a lot of people speculated on it. It was probably a real threat to them 4.5 years ago. I can't imagine it is now. Dropbox has a large, happy fanbase that's going to keep using it and keep spreading. They're going to keep growing. They've got a…
FWIW, one of the reasons I like having a non Google service to hold some important files is in case I hit the Google black swan and get locked out of my gmail account. (I also backup my email regularly.) While integration would probably be convenient, I need to be able to keep working if I do get locked out.
Do you think fear of a Google black swan is enough of a selling point for dropbox to survive?
Google X: Is the Y party Over? I think I seen this on HN about 4 times in the last year. Is there any front where google managed to beat a good established product (except Android) ? Only good thing to come out of this, is a hopeful price reduction on Dropbox..
Are we already forgetting about the former Web-based email products? Before Gmail came along, some of those looked like "good established products," but now I think they are all in decline, based on what I read in the industry press and observe of the behavior of my friends and professional colleagues.
Here is the fundamental problem of competing against Google as a SW company. Google is an advertising company, as everyone now well knows. They have no problem selling SW cheap, or giving it away for free, if they can help their advertising business (either directly by hosting ads in the service, or mining data from the service for info to help target ads). If you feel like your SW has actual value and charge for it,…
Or a business model where advertising won't easily support the resources needed to provide the service. Theoretically storage is one such service, but I guess with dipping storage costs, the tipping point where its cost effective with advertising alone might have reached now.
Google X: Is the Y party Over? I think I seen this on HN about 4 times in the last year. Is there any front where google managed to beat a good established product (except Android) ? Only good thing to come out of this, is a hopeful price reduction on Dropbox..
And yes: Chrome (massive bite out of both IE and Firefox's share), email (Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, etc, take your pick), and mapping being the big ones. You could probably toss in online document editing and machine-translation too.
Google seems to do reasonably well with taking over tools, and less-so for taking over primarily-user-friendly applications or features. I'm not sure Dropbox has much to worry about.