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Look for the G-Drive in 2012 or 2013. It will be a piece of engineering genius that nobody will use. Over-engineering is Google's achilles heal and Dropbox is e

Look for the G-Drive in 2012 or 2013. It will be a piece of engineering genius that nobody will use. Over-engineering is Google's achilles heal and Dropbox is exploiting that brilliantly. Microsoft and Apple are irrelevant-- they are committed to closed platforms and they haven't demonstrated any competency otherwise. Dropbox should be a textbook case for how scrappy startups can compete against the behemoths. Edit: Dropbox biggest competition seems to be the shift from file systems to apps. A Google acquisition seems most likely. Personally I think Apple should snap them up for deep integration with iTunes/iOS. It could be a perfect marriage, but it doesn't seem like a very Apple thing to do.

kentf 16y ago
interesting perspective. I agree and disagree. I think Google could over-engineer it, but UI aside, there needs to be some "intense" engineering to scale this reliably across the globe. I don't doubt that Dropbox could do it, but I feel Google is poised for something like this. To their credit, they have gotten a few things right ;)
- MikeCapone 16y ago
  Isn't Dropbox built on top of Amazon datacenters? If that can't scale, I don't know what can.
  - oiujhygtfyhjuk 16y ago
    Yes - you could regard Dropbox as simply a different pricing model for S3 Amazon, you pay for what you use, Dropbox you pay (more than S3) for 50Gb, you use less than that Dropbox make money from you. They also aggressively hash data chucks to avoid storing the same data from different people twice - while charging both of you. None of this is bad - they have a great product - but it's how they do it.
    - rubyrescue 16y ago
      Dropbox is so much more than a different pricing model though. i just think of the hundreds of insanely non-technical people i know who say to me "wow, dropbox changed my life". how many non-technical people say that about s3? <edit since i can't reply below - it could have been built on something other than s3 - its the user experience that makes Dropbox so compelling>
      - tybris 16y ago
        Uhm. S3 enabled Dropbox. By definition, it changed the world more than Dropbox.
        archenemy 16y ago
        I don't think so. Bear with me as the analogy is not all the way there, but small nuclear 'pebble' reactors already exist. Not that much people care... BUT the company that makes them available to the masses cheap and safely will change the world.
        dasil003 16y ago
        This is trivially wrong unless somehow you think Dropbox is simply a thin UI layer over S3. Which, if you really do think that, is the type of dismissive attitude that armchair Web 2.0 pundits like to spout off without any clue what goes into building a good user experience.
        Legion 16y ago
        That makes sense. We should rewrite the history books to reframe everything as the achievements of carbon.
    - nuclear_eclipse 16y ago
      > you could regard Dropbox as simply a different pricing model for S3 I think a better analogy is that you pay more for a simpler and friendlier interface to S3...
      - 16y ago
oiujhygtfyhjuk 16y ago
Google would make it free - but trawl all your data to send you ads. Apple would make it apple only - which is kind of irrelevent to 99% of people. Microsoft would just do it sooooo badly.
- xorglorb 16y ago
  Well, Apple already has iDisk, which is Mac/iOS only and Microsoft has SkyDrive, which I've heard performs horribly, so it's already happened, except for google.
  - patrickaljord 16y ago
    > except for google Well, no. You can upload any document you want on google docs now. And they give API to manipulate, there's a company that offers a dropbox like solution based on this. Google it.
  - TobyS95 16y ago
    Apple's iDisk is not Mac/iOS only. Any WebDAV client can access it. I use it on an XP machine without any extra software. In fact, using an open standard like WebDAV is probably the reason for iDisk's performance issues. Any WebDAV "disk" I have ever connected to has had performance issues.
- nikcub 16y ago
  Microsoft would just do it sooooo badly they probably have the best and most advanced implementation out there: www.mesh.com it does exactly what the guy above describes that he wants from Google, except that it is available now and can also be used as a platform for apps
harscoat 16y ago
I am happy to have my files by an independent(!) Dropbox. But if... please not apple! not Facebook! and not MSFT! which gives...
RK 16y ago
My hope is that if anyone buys Dropbox it's Amazon, and they just let Dropbox continue on its merry way, kicking general ass.
brg 16y ago
When I left, it had been in development for 5 years. Definitely looked for an over-engineered solution that is pushed out in some desperation to ship something.

kentf 16y ago

interesting perspective. I agree and disagree. I think Google could over-engineer it, but UI aside, there needs to be some "intense" engineering to scale this reliably across the globe. I don't doubt that Dropbox could do it, but I feel Google is poised for something like this. To their credit, they have gotten a few things right ;)

MikeCapone 16y ago
Isn't Dropbox built on top of Amazon datacenters? If that can't scale, I don't know what can.
- oiujhygtfyhjuk 16y ago
  Yes - you could regard Dropbox as simply a different pricing model for S3 Amazon, you pay for what you use, Dropbox you pay (more than S3) for 50Gb, you use less than that Dropbox make money from you. They also aggressively hash data chucks to avoid storing the same data from different people twice - while charging both of you. None of this is bad - they have a great product - but it's how they do it.
  - rubyrescue 16y ago
    Dropbox is so much more than a different pricing model though. i just think of the hundreds of insanely non-technical people i know who say to me "wow, dropbox changed my life". how many non-technical people say that about s3? <edit since i can't reply below - it could have been built on something other than s3 - its the user experience that makes Dropbox so compelling>
    - tybris 16y ago
      Uhm. S3 enabled Dropbox. By definition, it changed the world more than Dropbox.
      - archenemy 16y ago
        I don't think so. Bear with me as the analogy is not all the way there, but small nuclear 'pebble' reactors already exist. Not that much people care... BUT the company that makes them available to the masses cheap and safely will change the world.
      - dasil003 16y ago
        This is trivially wrong unless somehow you think Dropbox is simply a thin UI layer over S3. Which, if you really do think that, is the type of dismissive attitude that armchair Web 2.0 pundits like to spout off without any clue what goes into building a good user experience.
      - Legion 16y ago
        That makes sense. We should rewrite the history books to reframe everything as the achievements of carbon.
  - nuclear_eclipse 16y ago
    > you could regard Dropbox as simply a different pricing model for S3 I think a better analogy is that you pay more for a simpler and friendlier interface to S3...
    - 16y ago

oiujhygtfyhjuk 16y ago

Google would make it free - but trawl all your data to send you ads. Apple would make it apple only - which is kind of irrelevent to 99% of people. Microsoft would just do it sooooo badly.

xorglorb 16y ago
Well, Apple already has iDisk, which is Mac/iOS only and Microsoft has SkyDrive, which I've heard performs horribly, so it's already happened, except for google.
- patrickaljord 16y ago
  > except for google Well, no. You can upload any document you want on google docs now. And they give API to manipulate, there's a company that offers a dropbox like solution based on this. Google it.
- TobyS95 16y ago
  Apple's iDisk is not Mac/iOS only. Any WebDAV client can access it. I use it on an XP machine without any extra software. In fact, using an open standard like WebDAV is probably the reason for iDisk's performance issues. Any WebDAV "disk" I have ever connected to has had performance issues.
nikcub 16y ago
Microsoft would just do it sooooo badly they probably have the best and most advanced implementation out there: www.mesh.com it does exactly what the guy above describes that he wants from Google, except that it is available now and can also be used as a platform for apps

harscoat 16y ago

I am happy to have my files by an independent(!) Dropbox. But if... please not apple! not Facebook! and not MSFT! which gives...

RK 16y ago

My hope is that if anyone buys Dropbox it's Amazon, and they just let Dropbox continue on its merry way, kicking general ass.

brg 16y ago

When I left, it had been in development for 5 years. Definitely looked for an over-engineered solution that is pushed out in some desperation to ship something.