Live data from Hacker News

Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

googleblog.blogspot.com

241–250 of 522 posts

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#241
post #189

Absolutely no mention of how files are protected. Is encryption used? Is it technically possible for a Google employee with proper access to view your files (with private key encryption it'd be impossible)? Should we assume this is this on par with Gmail email attachments (viewable by certain employees)?

> Can Google employees access your files? Do bears shit in the woods?

Quoting from google.com/privacy: "We restrict access to personal information to Google employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us, and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations."

Speaking as a Googler, everything I've seen indicates a strong company-wide emphasis (both technological and process/policy) on user privacy. Not only who CAN access your individual data, but who DID access it and why.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#242
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course Google Drive is not a surprise to DropBox but I still feel that a 'One does not simply counter Google' Meme could be appropriate here.

Drew Houston has an amazing sense of humor. https://twitter.com/#!/drewhouston/status/194837482490179584

haha.....love that guy!

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course Google Drive is not a surprise to DropBox but I still feel that a 'One does not simply counter Google' Meme could be appropriate here.

dropbox presumably pays for s3 slightly less or slightly more (depending on redundancy level) than goog end user price: Over 5000 TB / month $0.055 per GB $0.037 per GB

Well, they're doing pretty heavy de-duping, but point well taken.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#244

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…

  >this goes well beyond "evil."
Oh look, it's this tired old canard again.

I'd really hate to be in Google's position. Really hate. They make a ton of services that are near universal, not due to lockin, not due to any other anticompetitive shenanigans, but because they're good and people want to use them.

And meanwhile with every product launch, 90% of the internet using public is rightly excited, 9 % are meh, and the remaining one percent are "zOMG GOOGLE IS EVIL! HOW DARE THEY MAKE A SERVICE THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO WILLINGLY USE! AND CAN EASILY MOVE DATA IN AND OUT OF!"

Some of you have a shockingly broad and absurd definition of "evil".

If there's something I absolutely don't want to be read, I'll upload a truecrypt volume. Problem solved, sans chicken-little-esque complaints.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#245
post #216

I'm not sure if anybody mention this but GDrive actually does not download documents to your local machine. It just adds a json document pointing to file to edit. So what is point of GDrive?

This seems to only be the case with "Google" document formats (Google document, Google spreadsheet, etc). Every other file type seems to sync local files appropriately.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#246

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…

Then I assume you are also not a big fan on any online service. An interesting trend I'm noticing is that people stop writing offline software. Pretty soon anything new you want will only be available as a service. What then?

Hundreds of thousands of apps on App Store and Android Market says you're wrong. It's true that many of them require an online account, but many don't. Excluding that, there's still lots of free software.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#248
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was available just minutes ago!! I landed a 200GB space for $50/year just before they changed the pricing plans. I should have gone for more :)

I think you got an "old pricing plan," which does not include Google Drive: http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ... I'm in the same boat, having had an 80GB plan for $20/yr for some time now.

I think you got an "old pricing plan," which does not include Google Drive

I actually bought an 80GB "old" plan this morning ($20 isn't that big of a bet) after seeing the leak of the upcoming pricing, essentially trying to grandfather in a more favorable plan. While the comparison implies that the old plan doesn't have gdrive, I most certainly have it and have the full 80GB available in it. Further I retain the ability to renew the 80GB plan in a year without adopting a new plan.

Perhaps they are simply saying that the people who bought the old plan got a lower price given that they didn't price in google Drive, however they definitely seem to be rolling that functionality in.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#249
I was already paying $20 / year for 80 GB of storage that I was using for backing up my photos on Picasa.

Unfortunately the new plans are way more expensive, especially since my photo collection is growing like crazy and I'll end up needing much more than that.

If there's one thing I hate about Google is that you cannot rely on their pricing. They did the same thing with App Engine.

I'm also using the free version of Google Apps. Maybe I should reconsider.

Re: Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

#250
post #245
post #216

I'm not sure if anybody mention this but GDrive actually does not download documents to your local machine. It just adds a json document pointing to file to edit. So what is point of GDrive?

This seems to only be the case with "Google" document formats (Google document, Google spreadsheet, etc). Every other file type seems to sync local files appropriately.

But it is Google Docs... Meaning I still have to use some other tool to have offline access (and backup) of my documents?

Isn't whole point of Dropbox to have offline access and (multiple) offline backups of your files?

Post reply on HN