4 ms·

Ok, some of this sounds good. Store your docs and your pdfs and you can now read them online. Google can even let you search inside your own files, and even mon

by Hominem 15y ago

Ok, some of this sounds good. Store your docs and your pdfs and you can now read them online. Google can even let you search inside your own files, and even monetize it by showing you ads based on file contents. Dropbox is not a success, in my mind, because it is cloud storage. It is a success because of shell integration. No fumbling around with browsers to upload or download files. It is seamless, I can open docs from dropbox with notepad for god's sake. I would like to see google offer shell integration as well. Drop all your word docs in the folder and they are now in Google docs. Make some edits with word and it syncs to Google. Turn on your computer and it pulls down the latest version from Google doc. If Google won't do it, someone else should. Hack together a windows shell extension, with git as a backend and an online doc editor.

AdamFernandez 15y ago
I agree. Logging into Google and manually uploading and downloading files is not as seamless or as simple as a Dropbox client side app 'folder'(especially with the synchronization capabilities). That doesn't mean Google couldn't clone that exact functionality and be able to offer cheaper higher tier storage, but I think Google wants to see everything move to the browser, so I don't know if a local client on multiple platforms aligns with that objective.
Splines 15y ago
You can do this on SkyDrive today. Onenote & Word (and probably the rest of Office) know how to save to SkyDrive, and there are web editors for Onenote, Word (and Excel & PPT, I believe) available on SkyDrive. Granted, it's not entirely the same as Dropbox - the client needs to know how to talk to SkyDrive, but I also think that SkyDrive knows how to communicate via Webdav, so it's probable that you could get a 3rd-party client to read/write to SkyDrive.
- spinchange 15y ago
  I haven't tried SkyDrive through WebDAV, but previously (like >1 year ago) the only way to mimic Dropbox behavior was using it in conjunction with MS Live Mesh which was another piece of software & install/config and not as elegant or simple as Dropbox. (and also could only use a portion of SkyDrive space) I have wondered for years why simple directory syncing wasn't easier or built-in out of the box on MS products
  - Splines 15y ago
    Ironically Live Mesh started life out as FolderShare which predates Dropbox. FolderShare was awesome and met my needs perfectly - I'm a little disappointed that MS clearly dropped the ball with transitioning it over to an internal product.
obtino 15y ago
> If Google won't do it, someone else should. Hack together a windows shell extension, with git as a backend and an online doc editor. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Insync provide this functionality? It's not opensource, but still...
- RachelF 15y ago
  There's a lot of apps that already hack Google into a drive, Gladinet, Syncdocs, Insync
sdizdar 15y ago
Correct. However, I don't thing the main problem is uploading/syncing data from your PC. Sooner or latter, the PCs will not be the main source of information / storage of information. For some small and distributed companies that is already the case. The data which needs to be in GDocs is actually somewhere else: in your Basecamp, in your Evernote, in Dropbox, etc. Anyway - shameless plug at the end - this is the reason I quit my job and started http://cloudHQ.net http://cloudHQ.net : to help companies and individuals to continuously replicate and synchronize data between cloud services. We are bootstrapped and the feedback is more than welcome.
cdcarter 15y ago
InSync already offers shell integration for Google Docs (and can be general purpose cloud storage too). It's absolutely fantastic, and spurred me to purchase more google storage.

by Hominem 15y ago

AdamFernandez 15y ago

I agree. Logging into Google and manually uploading and downloading files is not as seamless or as simple as a Dropbox client side app 'folder'(especially with the synchronization capabilities). That doesn't mean Google couldn't clone that exact functionality and be able to offer cheaper higher tier storage, but I think Google wants to see everything move to the browser, so I don't know if a local client on multiple platforms aligns with that objective.

Splines 15y ago

You can do this on SkyDrive today. Onenote & Word (and probably the rest of Office) know how to save to SkyDrive, and there are web editors for Onenote, Word (and Excel & PPT, I believe) available on SkyDrive. Granted, it's not entirely the same as Dropbox - the client needs to know how to talk to SkyDrive, but I also think that SkyDrive knows how to communicate via Webdav, so it's probable that you could get a 3rd-party client to read/write to SkyDrive.

spinchange 15y ago
I haven't tried SkyDrive through WebDAV, but previously (like >1 year ago) the only way to mimic Dropbox behavior was using it in conjunction with MS Live Mesh which was another piece of software & install/config and not as elegant or simple as Dropbox. (and also could only use a portion of SkyDrive space) I have wondered for years why simple directory syncing wasn't easier or built-in out of the box on MS products
- Splines 15y ago
  Ironically Live Mesh started life out as FolderShare which predates Dropbox. FolderShare was awesome and met my needs perfectly - I'm a little disappointed that MS clearly dropped the ball with transitioning it over to an internal product.

obtino 15y ago

> If Google won't do it, someone else should. Hack together a windows shell extension, with git as a backend and an online doc editor. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Insync provide this functionality? It's not opensource, but still...

RachelF 15y ago
There's a lot of apps that already hack Google into a drive, Gladinet, Syncdocs, Insync

sdizdar 15y ago

Correct. However, I don't thing the main problem is uploading/syncing data from your PC. Sooner or latter, the PCs will not be the main source of information / storage of information. For some small and distributed companies that is already the case. The data which needs to be in GDocs is actually somewhere else: in your Basecamp, in your Evernote, in Dropbox, etc. Anyway - shameless plug at the end - this is the reason I quit my job and started http://cloudHQ.net http://cloudHQ.net : to help companies and individuals to continuously replicate and synchronize data between cloud services. We are bootstrapped and the feedback is more than welcome.

cdcarter 15y ago

InSync already offers shell integration for Google Docs (and can be general purpose cloud storage too). It's absolutely fantastic, and spurred me to purchase more google storage.