Live data from Hacker News

Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

searchenginejournal.com

201–210 of 221 posts

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#201
Dropbox made it so I don't even think about it. My files are just where I need them. That is the amazing part: make it so that you don't see it, but it is always there.

I think they have a pretty broad-base and google entering the market validates the business model. Though, their prices might drop a bit.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#202
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's a small price to pay when making all the users happy.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#203
post #87
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price of Google App Engine looked dirt cheap too.

And then what happened?

They changed a significant charge from CPU time to wall time.

And they did this with an execution model of only giving a single request at a time to a process.

So a process taking half a second to make a query or poll a url is suddenly getting a massive price hike.

Edit: on the other hand a fresh search is suggesting that python 2.7 and with it concurrent requests are coming in a couple months

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#204
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then what happened?

They changed a significant charge from CPU time to wall time. And they did this with an execution model of only giving a single request at a time to a process. So a process taking half a second to make a query or poll a url is suddenly getting a massive price hike. Edit: on the other hand a fresh search is suggesting that python 2.7 and with it concurrent requests are coming in a couple months

to be fair the original pricing for app engine was for a google product that was in early beta. Google Docs has been out of beta for a long time, and their storage prices have decreased since they were first released. In addition they have removed file type limitations, and increased max file size to 10gb. It is be beyond unlikely that they would regress and increase prices.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You lost me. MS put out a product for free that was competing with other products for free. Are you really saying that is the situation here?

Netscape initially charged for the browser. "Netscape Navigator was not free to the general public until January 1998" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape

I know that it was supposed to cost money but I have never met anyone, outside of corporations, that actually paid for Navigator. My ISP included it in their software packet, my school had it readily available.

I think they were doing "free for noncommercial uses" license because most of the people I knew then I wouldn't consider a software pirate.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#206

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.

Is the risk higher to be locked out of Google than to be locked out of Dropbox?

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#207

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…

> They've got a product that's a joy to use, which is not something Google is known for building outside of their core competency of search.

Google is known for getting minimalism which is the most important UI element.

> the annoyance of having to upload a large amount of files to another service.

I imagine you'd just enter your Dropbox password into a migration form and have everything seamlessly pulled in. In fact, Google might even let you sync back, but Dropbox could add it easily it if not. By nature these services have to inter-operate.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#209

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…

Dropbox's situation seems extremely precarious. Most users have less than 2 GB of data. That's not lock-in, that's a few minutes of moving. I have about 15.000 high-resolution tagged photos on flickr - that's lock-in.

Simplicity and transparency (from where I'm standing) seem like the things that helped Dropbox proliferate - no fuss, just a directory that syncs, but it also means they have no way to monetize their service (they haven't made a dime from me yet) and they provide no added value.

Now, consider my case. I don't even have to remove the Dropbox client. The folder is already mirrored on my computer, when I install the next version of Ubuntu I have to explicitly add the PPA and install the proprietary Nautilus extension. If I don't do that, I can just drag the folder to another service. At some point it's easier to quit than to continue using it, which is why I predict Dropbox is fucked once Google provides the same transparent syncing with added value of its services.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#210
> Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over? Yeah, because Google will put a really nice effort making cross-platform client software like Dropbox does

Look how pathetic Google Talk desktop client is.

Is the Google Talk client really complex piece of VC++ shit that Google can't spare some decent develope from tens of throusands of genius employees?

Post reply on HN