Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

thenextweb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 183 posts

Re: Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

#131

Post by Drbble »

fps wrote: post #41
kyouens wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think you're right. I guess my feeling is that I would rather pay for the service. That way I am the customer, I'm not the product.

I've read that google's main goal for these free products is to increase the amount of time people spend online and not to monetize every bit of information that they come across. The more time people spend online, the more people see adsense ads. That's why Chrome and Android aren't spying on people's browsing habits like they technically could be, for example.

And to profile everyone to optimize those ads. People watch plenty of ads on TV. Google is rich because they have very special data used to price the inventory effectively.

Re: Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

#132

Post by jrockway »

kyouens wrote: post #29
mhurron wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Should I worry about my privacy if I use this "free" service You should always worry about your privacy. Paid service or not. Google makes its money building a profile about what it knows about you. In the light of placing files there, make of that what you will.

Yes, I think you're right. I guess my feeling is that I would rather pay for the service. That way I am the customer, I'm not the product.

That way I am the customer, I'm not the product.

There are a lot of companies I do business with that have sold my name to advertisers. Paying a company money doesn't mean they aren't going to make money off of you some other way too.

Re: Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

#133

Post by yaix »

tiziano88 wrote: post #88
robomartin wrote: post #21

OK, so now when they suspend your Google account you also get to experience loosing whatever you had in Google Drive. Just for this I am converting my Dropbox account into one of their paid packages to do my part in ensuring they stick around. One would hope that at one point Google might start to realize that the way they are handling accounts could work against their own interests. I --and I am sure others-- have e…

Google has a brilliant customer service, it's just that many people do not understand the meaning of the term "customer". If you use their free services, you are not a customer; if you do pay for it, then you get proper support and everything. It seems pretty fair to me.

Tell that to all those paying AdWords costumers that got kicked without explanation about two years ago. The webmaster forums where full about it.

Re: Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

#134

Post by Drbble »

jackreichert wrote: post #122

8 years ago gmail launched with a whopping 1GB, back then it was HUGE. Have storage costs plateaued so that now 8 years later the best they can offer is 5GB?

When Gmail launched, quota was 1GB in numeric counter that was constantly growing even while you viewed the quota on an otherwise static pages. Drive may be similar.

Also, back then it was nearly impossible to fill 1GB with email and restricted attachments. 1GB was mostly a gimmick. Now people can fill 5GB throttle only for a day or two by their network uplink speed.

Re: Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

#135

Post by Drbble »

est wrote: post #116

I for one does not think it has any chance competing agaist Dropbox. Every Google client software hasn't been updated for decades. What's the last time you saw an update to that native Google Talk windows client? Google Desktop for Windows? Desktop Search? Google makes desktop clients in a half assed way. It will never be half decent as Dropbox.

Sync is only one feature. It doesn't need updates.

Re: Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

#136

Post by Drbble »

zerostar07 wrote: post #103
gojomo wrote: post #84

'Drive' is kind of a backward-looking name – the evolution of both appliance devices and the cloud means people have less reason to think of 'floppy drives', 'hard drives' and 'flash drives' than ever before. Also, the Google self-driving cars have had more popular attention lately than their cloud storage feints... so many people seeing "Google Drive coming soon" are going to think it's the computer-driver.

Since there is no driver, it will probably be Google Cars (tm)

gCar. Already launched in China.

Re: Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

#137

Post by Drbble »

stuartmemo wrote: post #6

My ideal storage solution would be one where I'm not restricted to syncing my own local data. I want to be able to upload it to the cloud then delete it from my HD. This is the mentality I'm used to from Gmail. Everything is archived online and I don't need a local copy. This would surely tie in with the thinking behind the Chromebook?

I hope you are not the tech person on your team.

Re: Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

#138

Post by Drbble »

tdtran wrote: post #63

Sorry for sounding cynical but I am realy curious about the quality of GDrive client apps. The one for Android probably will be good. But I am unsure about the other platforms. Check out Google's "native" GMail app for iOS to see what I mean.

It's not an app, it's a file sync. Check out the Contact Sync "app" on a Mac.
Post reply on HN