I dunno. I've been using Dropbox for years now, I've got it set up on all my computers, and as of right now I don't really have a pressing reason to switch. Gdrive would have to offer up something new and amazing before I'd want to change over. (And it would have to be something other than lower prices, because I don't back up enough stuff to have to pay for additional storage.)
Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
181–190 of 221 posts
Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
#182It's in areas like this that Google sometimes oversteps the mark and veers dangerously close to "being evil" territory... in MY opinion. As I see it: Dropbox innovated, and they innovated well. It's inevitable that competition would arise, but competition on the scale Google can offer could well mean total annihilation for Dropbox, if annihilation is what Google pursues. Google doesn't "need" to enter this market. An…
That's "evil" only because they will compete with a smaller company that you personally happen to like.
yup, and I was very careful to point out that it was "my" view.
Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
#183I thought Windows 8 was going to kill dropbox
Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
#184Is this credible news? Building GDrive seems completely incompatible with long term vision of Google (Chrome OS, Android, etc.) (at least vision implied by listening their earning calls). Also sync'ing with local storage means allowing users to use non-Google Docs editors (MS Office) and all these cool collaboration things Google Apps are useless when you move in Gdrive mode. Maybe building a good iphone/Android app…
I agree, I was speculative when I read this. Google is making a push for a cloud based OS - so why would they roll out a product based on local file syncing?
Perhaps, this is a transitive product that will eventually be the foundation for Chrome OS file storage?
Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
"In it is day, IE was not an inferior browser. [Making little or no noise] the opposite, actually." Putting aside the snarky remark about IE's apparent target audience, there are any number of contemporary sources which give examples of how your intended statement is factually incorrect. For example: http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f3800/v-e.pdf
Personally, I started out as a Netscape for Windows user thinking Microsoft had no chance of catching up to a competitor as nimble as Netscape. IE 1.0 was awful (basically a rebrand of an outdated Spyglass Mosaic), IE2 was a little better but still grossly inadequate, IE3 was just fine, but there was no reason to switch, and IE4 was legitimately better (in my opinion) than Netscape was at the time. (Helped by the fac…
I started out as a Netscape for Mac user. I stayed that way until there was a viable alternative, and that alternative was never IE, no matter how much Steve Jobs stood on stage and said he loved it.
Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
#186I keep having problems with Dropbox lately, with files that aren't synced and lots of conflicted copies. Not sure why but made me realize that Dropbox has been offering pretty much the same service for years now. Granted, the service was great from the beginning but: are they improving enough to remain competitive?
Completely agreed. Right now the most requested feature is "watch any folder". It received the most upvotes by a great margin (30%). And it was suggested 2 years ago. Yet there is no indication of development at all on that front (or any other for that matter.) I really like Dropbox, but seriously will look into GDrive too.
"Watch any folder" would greatly clutter the beautiful ui and conceptual model.
Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If I were Dropbox I'd simply view this as market validation And if I were Dropbox, I'd worry like hell. Google isn't depending on making GDrive profitable from fees, so they can literally give it away.
You'd be surprised how difficult "giving it away" can be, even for Google. Google succeeded big on giving away email, search, and androids. Do I need to list up all the acquisitions and products that even with a mortal lock on navigation on the Internet Google couldn't convince people was worth at least $0?
I agree. Just look at the way Google slowed down the incrementally increasing storage of Gmail. It's been some time but it's still lagging after they did a major "bump" some years back. There might be a lot of applause at the beginning but being able to knock Dropbox out of the game will take serious effort.
I think GDrive will help DropBox more by offloading their freeriders to Google. People seeking a better premium experience (and less risk of say losing all their GDrive contents because their Google+ got suspended) will likely find DropBox appealing once they realize the convenience of a service like this.
Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
#188When 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…
Hey, didn't you write a long blog post about quitting Hacker News? And changing your password to a random string of characters to avoid being lured back?
Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
#189I love Dropbox and Google Drive would have a hard time getting me to switch. Dropbox seems to "get it" when it comes to simple, easy to use file synchronization. The one area that GDrive might wiggle into is making it even easier to use Google Docs. I really like GDocs but I don't use them very much because its just not convenient to do so with local files. However, if I can "upload" a file to a directory on my machi…
Your second paragraph is a really good point - if dropping a file into my GDrive-watched-folder makes it instantly accessible in Google Docs, and saving a file in Google Docs makes it appear in my local folder, then that sounds like a compelling piece of UX.
Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?
#190When 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…
> They've got a small bit of lock-in if you use them a lot too, the annoyance of having to upload a large amount of files to another service.
If it works the same way as Dropbox, you'd just have to move files on your local machine from one shared directory to the other. Hell I wish all services were as easy.