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To be fair, people have been talking about gdrive since way before dropbox. It's just that now is the right time, they have a successful mobile OS, google docs
by patrickaljord 15y ago
To be fair, people have been talking about gdrive since way before dropbox. It's just that now is the right time, they have a successful mobile OS, google docs is taking off and chrome OS people need a hard drive. It was a given that they were going to release something like that if only for Chrome OS.
- shantanubala 15y agoAlso, Dropbox wasn't revolutionary because of what it was on paper. If you told me "file sync made easy" I would've been skeptical a few years ago. The simplicity of Dropbox's interface made it popular, not the actual concept. Which makes Google's "GDrive" a little more interesting as far as strategy. If I'm Google, I would want people to stop using Dropbox. Not because I want to make a competitor to Dropbox, but because I want more people on the web seeing my ads. If people get used to syncing their files effortlessly, they'll stop using web-based software and go back to the more responsive, feature-rich, and integrated desktop tools (eg MS Office vs Google Docs). Less people using the web = less revenue. GDrive won't be a "drive." It will be an attempt to get rid of our notions of files and applications on our computers. Or at least that's my prediction. They won't bother making a Dropbox clone because it doesn't help them in any way if it's successful (it'll probably wind up costing them more money than it's worth) because Dropbox encourages users to use desktop apps and save files using a traditional file system on their computer.
- ryandvm 15y agoThey already tried that - it's Google Docs. It's been only moderately successful, so to boost adoption they're going to hook up a Dropbox interface to it and pick up all the Dropbox users that also have Google accounts.