Why does Google not (want to?) support the full Markdown experience in Google Drive? I'm not talking about the limited, mostly useless support in Docs, but supporting opening, reading / editing real (.MD extension) files. Just, why?
No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
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Re: No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
#2Nobody gets promoted over supporting open source standards at google anymore... well except maybe in some parts of their backend.
Re: No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
#3Nobody gets promoted over supporting open source standards at google anymore... well except maybe in some parts of their backend.
I don't think they'd actually remove the functionality of it was added but I bet adding it would be an uphill struggle
Re: No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
#4Phrase it the other way, why would they want to support a markdown editor in google drive?
Re: No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
#5Phrase it the other way, why would they want to support a markdown editor in google drive?
I think lots of people would keep their (plain text markdown) notes in Drive instead of using yet another tool / app / service for that. Besides, having
unencrypted text files at your disposal (for... I don't know... peeking into?) would be an absolute win.
Re: No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
#6Simple: if you make your documents in Markdown, you won't be making them in Google Docs. Stuff made in Google Docs is sticky, increases your dependence on Google, and importantly has a valuable network effect due to their collaboration features. It is in Google's best interest to encourage you to rely on their proprietary services instead of offering you alternatives that allow you to switch provider easily.
Additionally, the "people who know what Markdown is but also like trusting Google with their files" demographic is vanishingly small and not who Drive is targeting at all.
Re: No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
#7Phrase it the other way, why would they want to support a markdown editor in google drive?
I think lots of people would keep their (plain text markdown) notes in Drive instead of using yet another tool / app / service for that. Besides, having unencrypted text files at your disposal (for... I don't know... peeking into?) would be an absolute win.
There's already Google Keep for notes.
Re: No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think lots of people would keep their (plain text markdown) notes in Drive instead of using yet another tool / app / service for that. Besides, having unencrypted text files at your disposal (for... I don't know... peeking into?) would be an absolute win.
There's already Google Keep for notes.
I use that since day one, I love it as a product. But still, this is not about notes, it's about supporting a simple, text-based file format.
Re: No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
#9Simple: if you make your documents in Markdown, you won't be making them in Google Docs. Stuff made in Google Docs is sticky, increases your dependence on Google, and importantly has a valuable network effect due to their collaboration features. It is in Google's best interest to encourage you to rely on their proprietary services instead of offering you alternatives that allow you to switch provider easily. Addition…
'Additionally, the "people who know what Markdown is but also like trusting Google with their files" demographic is vanishingly small and not who Drive is targeting at all.' <--this 200%
Re: No Markdown support in Google Drive after all these years
#10Google Drive is a perfect example of today's Google. "Good enough -- just barely".
It could be a very fast, efficient file browser with lots of format previews. It's not.
Doing basic "file manager" things such as viewing/extracting files from a .zip, editing a plain-text file, or viewing markdown… all those are just "too complicated" for a small indie company like Google.
Drive is incredibly powerful, and yet it's just awful compared to what it could be. If someone one day makes a "better web UI" for Drive with better functionality, but that still uses google drive in the backend, damn I want in.