Sounds like a good start, but not a replacement for SugarSync. You have to put everything in their special Google Drive folder, can't sync existing folders. So I can't use it to back up configuration files that need to stay in their own directories.
Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
391–400 of 522 posts
Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
" Linux support ... Headless (command line interface) Most normal (non-techie) users aren't going to care about these though. I can see the OCR being a big win among college students...scan in all your handwritten notes, and boom! they're all indexed and searchable and won't get lost before you need them for your final exam.
All features are useful to some subset of the user base. I'm just trying to help compile a list going the other way of things Dropbox does and Gdrive doesn't. It is up to others to determine how much or little they matter. That the list is so short indicates just how competitive the gdrive offering is. I've never encountered anything that reliably reads my handwriting, and that includes my brain!
"All features are useful to some subset of the user base."
Of course, I didn't mean to be nitpicking, I'm coming from the point of view of thinking about what it would take to move the dials for Google given the scale they operate at. Going after an OS with a minuscule market share and command line stuff wouldn't do much to steal market share from Dropbox, SkyDrive, Box.net et al. A real differentiator IMO is the way in which Dropbox seems native - it's so deeply embedded in the OS, whether you use Windows or Mac (I use both, one at home and one at work, the experience is great on both).
"....Drew Houston, who blasted his way onto Apple's radar screen when he reverse-engineered Apple's file system so that his startup's logo, an unfolding box, appeared elegantly tucked inside. Not even an Apple SWAT team had been able to do that."
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/1107/best-companies-11-dre...
I don't think Gdrive will - or want to - replicate this experience. They want to keep the 'big G' branding separate from Windows or OS X, and manage files in a browser instead.
Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
#393I recently upgraded to Dropbox @ $199/yr for 100gb to archive our digital photos. Yesterday MSFT skydrive offered 100gb for $50/yr. Today GOOG offers 400GB for $100/yr or 1TB for $256/yr. As a consumer with "offsite backup" in mind, there doesn't seem to be an inherently high switching cost to move services away from DropBox. As a result I think that they're going to need to reassess pricing strategy within the year.…
Surely ease of use trumps price? I was an original Box user. The ease of Dropbox integration makes me shudder at the thought of giving up that hassle saver. Features-smeatures. I want an online file system that is exactly that.
Did you ever use Box's desktop syncing? I've been wondering how that is.
Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
OCR doesn't mean handwriting recognition, though... handwriting's a heck of a lot harder than print.
Actually, Evernote's OCR does handwriting, and at least for me, does it pretty well. It's not going to give you a transcription, but it's good enough that the doc will show up if you're searching for it.
That is probably because the Evernote founders were the team that developed the CalliGrapher cursive recognition engine which was used by the Apple Newton back in the day.
Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you quote, quote in full. The problem is not with Google sitting on a lot of data, it's with them exploiting people's ignorance to get it.
You just described every business. People don't have perfect knowledge. Thank you for trying to raise awareness over an admittedly important issue. But calling this "evil" is absurd. Go yell at people convincing college kids to sign up for credit cards or buy magazines by handing out T-shirts and movie passes. For comparison: The phone companies know about every phone call you make. That's a wealth of information. Th…
Go yell at people convincing college kids to sign up for credit cards or buy magazines by handing out T-shirts and movie passes.
Gladly. Those people are assholes.
Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
#396Yeah I think I'll pass. SkyDrive gives me 25GB and their "access any file on your computer (even those outside of your skydrive folder) from skydrive.com" feature is amazing. Plus like someone else already mentioned, having GDrive download hyperlinks is subpar imo. I'd rather get the doc or xls back, edit it on a client, and have it re-upload and convert to gdoc format. SkyDrive: 25gb (or 7 which is still > 5), cheap…
A lot of people would use Google over Microsoft because of the good will and reputation Google currently holds.
Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you just wanted an offsite backup option, you should check out the startup backblaze.com They're offering unlimited storage for $4/month.
Backblaze doesn't know how to work through proxies. I mean, seriously.
CrashPlan seems to and it's bloody amazing in terms of features, reliability, price and tech support.. It also has unlimited storage and uploads fairly fast.
Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
#398Few of my observations from this announcement: In Google's vision of the future, your computer is a thin client. There is no My Documents folder, as everything personal lives on gdrive. The Chrome app store becomes the new operating system. Apps will have access to your files, they will be able to search them, open them, and operate on them. You will never see the "Open file" dialog box again. In this world, the conc…
I don't, because I fairly frequently don't have internet or cell access. Hopefully this will spur telecom companies to get their asses in gear, but I'm not optimistic, and that sounds like a supremely frustrating future of trying to get reception.
Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
#399Anybody noticed how rare it is for OP to post? His first page of submissions are mostly from 3 years ago.
Nobody except the people suffering from stalker syndrome.
Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really
#400To those expecting Dropbox to meet Google's prices, they might not be able too. Google can easily lose a fortune in this until Dropbox and other small players go bankrupt.
Google can easily lose a fortune in this until Dropbox and other small players go bankrupt.
This is exactly the sort of thing that draws attention from the US Department of Justice. I don't see Google stepping under that microscope if they can at all avoid it.