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Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

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Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#171

Post by chrisaycock »

edw519 wrote: post #100

What might go wrong? (This is a test of imagination, not confidence.) Google might finally unleash GDrive and steal a lot of Dropbox's thunder (especially if this takes place before launch.)... From Dropbox's 2007 YC Application, http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27532820/app.html I love reading old YC applications. I wonder if someday, they'll become the 21st century version of Harvard Business Review case studies.

> I love reading old YC applications. I wonder if someday, they'll become the 21st century version of Harvard Business Review case studies.

I think an accelerator application or business plan would be better than a case study simply because case studies are often written with hindsight. The HBR makes it difficult to honestly assess what real-life people thought before making a particular decision.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#175

Post by 16s »

folktheory wrote: post #87
bo1024 wrote: post #39

Haven't seen anything on the key question here for me ... how are they monetizing this? I'd rather not upload a ton of personal data to Google until I know how they're making money off of it. (Do they plan to integrate your documents into your search results?)

They "monetize" it by charging money for use of the service.

Yes, now they charge governments a fee to read your data as now they have more of it.

This is a joke. I hope most people realize that.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#177

Post by strongjas »

franze wrote: post #70
pg wrote: post #34

Anyone know if this is the original Google Drive they wrote all those years ago and never launched, or a new thing they reused the name for?

Gdrive was killed in 2008 (according to Steven Levy's book In the Plex after some top management lobbying by Sundar Pichai .. the guy who now wrote the blogpost) but as this was 4 years ago and a lot of waves have passed since then, I suspect - without any internal knowledge - that this is a complete new iteration of the same topic.

Do not expect any consistency from Sundar Pichai. He told a group of engineers to focus exclusively on a product, only to shut down their office 6 months later.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#178

Post by Juha »

primigenus wrote: post #35

Here's the most important paragraph in the blog post that most people will gloss over (because Google glossed over it): "Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience. You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you’ll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail. Drive is also an open platform, so we’re working with many third-party developers so you can d…

I remember some Googlers talking about web intents last year which sounds a bit similar concept, but I guess this is something separate form that one.

They were writing about it in context of Chrome: http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/connecting-web-apps-with-we...

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#179

Post by huhtenberg »

untog wrote: post #110
huhtenberg wrote: post #21

Well, this pretty much exhausts the pool of people who don't care for the data privacy. On the plus side, those who do want privacy are still waiting for a proper solution, and it is an opportunity. (edit) It is really shocking how absolutely mind-bogglingly ignorant people are when it comes to their data privacy matters. How could any business person in a sane state of mind choose to share its data with some 3rd par…

It is really shocking how absolutely mind-bogglingly ignorant people are when it comes to online privacy matters. A side note, but it's shocking how people are unable to believe that others are capable of making informed choices. Case in point: I use Facebook. I often get people hounding me- "don't you care about privacy?!?", "Facebook is using your data!" Yeah, I know. I don't mind. The way I see it, privacy is the…

You using Facebook is not a problem, because it doesn't affect me. However if you decide to use GMail or GA or Google Fonts or gWhatever, then it forces me into the picture and I really do not appreciate it.

How would you feel if a private company would give away free surveillance cameras to the store operators in return for telling them how many people walked through their doors? Or how would you like your real-estate agent CC'ing all your house purchase documents to a fax service hosted in another country just because it got to fax you for free? This is the state of ignorance that I am talking about. It all starts rather innocently with using gDrive to store some photos, but then bit by bit it weasels its way in and establishes new "privacy norms", where apparently privacy is a new currency - jeez, are you serious? Really? You would let someone observe you taking a shit in return for a free roll of tissue paper? This is wrong. The fact it's an established practice doesn't make it any more right, leave alone ethical. Sober up.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#180

Post by jonknee »

huhtenberg wrote: post #21

Well, this pretty much exhausts the pool of people who don't care for the data privacy. On the plus side, those who do want privacy are still waiting for a proper solution, and it is an opportunity. (edit) It is really shocking how absolutely mind-bogglingly ignorant people are when it comes to their data privacy matters. How could any business person in a sane state of mind choose to share its data with some 3rd par…

> How could any business person in a sane state of mind choose to share its data with some 3rd party company.

Every company has to share its data somehow. You probably aren't your own ISP, or web host, or even land lord. Your company's health insurance provider knows all of your employees and even which ones are sick. Your employees likely have information on their phones and laptops about your company. Etc etc.

Google Apps (when you pay for it) comes with serious privacy agreements and certifications. Enough for government use even. Unless you have an amazingly competent team, I'd trust that Google is able to keep your data more secure than you are.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/government/trust.html

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