11 ms·

Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

183 points by Braasch 14y ago

rkudeshi 14y ago
This doesn't seem to have any new details on the service other than that its 5GB and launching on Mac/Windows/iOS/Android, which is all in line with expectations. Given all the recent leaks, it really doesn't seem like Google's doing much more than cloning Dropbox. Was I the only one expecting Google to knock this one out of the park, a la Gmail's introduction?
- rollypolly 14y ago
  Cloning dropbox at this point would not compel me to switch. I think Google is smarter than that. I'm looking forward to their announcement.
  - nik_0_0 14y ago
    I agree, Google has some of the smartest Software Engineers, a huge amount of capital, and really they could have spent as little or as much time on this as they wanted. I truly hope it doesn't end up another Google+ vs. Facebook type comparison. Lots of room for new players in this market, but there needs to be innovation.
  - camiller 14y ago
    However, folks like me that are not already using Dropbox, but do already use a whole host of Google services... well, I'm probably going to have 5GB free next week.
- stuartmemo 14y ago
  Is the launch date of next week not new info?
- cleverjake 14y ago
  >>This doesn't seem to have any new details on the service other than that its 5GB and launching on Mac/Windows/iOS/Android, which is all in line with expectations. The author mentions they have a draft of the release from a launch partner. That feels a lot more substantial than just rumors, to me. >> Given all the recent leaks, it really doesn't seem like Google's doing much more than cloning Dropbox. In the sense that they are creating a cloud storage option?I suppose. I would almost guaranty it will have extreme android integration, which would give it an obvious advantage over any other cloud storage app on android. >>Was I the only one expecting Google to knock this one out of the park, a la Gmail's introduction? We haven't seen the announcement, so saying that feels a bit early, but realistically, I am not sure what they could do that would be terribly interesting. GMail was amazing becuaae every other web mail platform sucked. Dropbox is awesome though, so they will lack the contrast to make them look better this time around.
- halo 14y ago
  A Dropbox clone with a better Android client would make me switch immediately. The Android Dropbox client doesn't even let you download folders at once, only individual files.
  - jpadkins 14y ago
    just curious.. what file types do you want on your phone? I don't have a use case for mobile file syncing for myself.
    - karlmarxman 14y ago
      If you have a decent-length metro commute to work, you could move a couple documents that you wanted to look over into your dropbox folder from your computer at home and open them up from your phone on your way in or during a lunch break.
  - statenjason 14y ago
    ES File Explorer will let you download a folder from Dropbox.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  Was I the only one expecting Google to knock this one out of the park, a la Gmail's introduction? It's all about the integration. File locker service? Yawn. Everybody and their dog has a new one. File locker service that's tightly integrated with what is (subjectively, to me) the best online collaboration suite available? And is priced to beat all competitors? Yes please.
- krzyk 14y ago
  It doesn't have a Linux client? What are they thinking?
stuartmemo 14y ago
My ideal storage solution would be one where I'm not restricted to syncing my own local data. I want to be able to upload it to the cloud then delete it from my HD. This is the mentality I'm used to from Gmail. Everything is archived online and I don't need a local copy. This would surely tie in with the thinking behind the Chromebook?
- wvenable 14y ago
  > Everything is archived online and I don't need a local copy. Even with Gmail, I hope you have a second copy of your data somewhere. You never know when your account might just disappear.
  - Karunamon 14y ago
    I think these concerns are vastly overstated, TBQH. The great majority of people seem to have no such issue with their accounts disappearing. It's one of those exceedingly rare but potentially catastrophic things, kind of like a nuclear reactor meltdown or being struck by lightning.
    - fluidcruft 14y ago
      If it was actually rare, wouldn't Google have nothing to lose by offering the safety blanket of real-live support (even if paid per-incident)?
      - Karunamon 14y ago
        You can already get paid support.. by having an Apps account. This gets you access to an actual support line for emergency issues like, say, being unable to log in. Not to mention a pretty reasonable SLA. At $50 a year, it's quite nice to have.
        fluidcruft 14y ago
        Too bad I can't do that for the @gmail account I've been using.
web_chops 14y ago
We worked on a startup product a few months which is currently shelved. It had a file system like interface and simplified moving files between dropbox, amazon S3, google docs and multiple accounts (any one with two dropbox accounts ?). With all this google drive news, its pretty tempting to bring it back to life :)
- K2h 14y ago
  why not put a raid file system between the free offerings. you get a larger total size faster transfers (ha, like my 6Mbit DSL cares =( and.... redundancy, which solves the 'everyone scared of the cloud' problem.
- nikcub 14y ago
  This is what the future of online storage will be, but it won't be google/dropbox/amazon etc. but rather 'your wordprocessor'/'your email'/'your social network' etc. adding a compatibility layer between storage networks is a temporary fix for when a standard is formed.
jacquesm 14y ago
We've seen this before. It was called google video. Google ended up buying youtube because even they could no longer deny they'd lost the battle and they couldn't risk it going to a competitor. Dropbox is in for a rough ride, as long as they can maintain focus and quality (beat them at customer support, that should be a walk in the park) they'll be the biggest YC exit ever once Google has run its course with the Google Drive.
- feral 14y ago
  There are huge network effects at play with youtube. People discover new content (related videos) as they browse the site. With Dropbox, it seems, to me, like there are much fewer network effects at play. I don't know what percentage of activity on Dropbox involves sharing between Dropbox customers, but I'd guess its low? I also think its a big deal that I already sign into my Google account on every computer I use; if my files are just going to be there, with my docs, mail and calendar, I'm probably not going to use another service.
  - ry0ohki 14y ago
    I don't know, that's one of the biggest benefits of Dropbox, I tell someone I'll add a shared drive and 9 times out of ten they already have a Dropbox account (in my tech world bubble at least)
    - nostromo 14y ago
      Times they already have a Google account: 10/10
      - GoodIntentions 14y ago
        Yeah, but some folks have come to the same conclusion as jacquesm ( above ) and use the big G as little as possible. Sure, I have a google account. I almost never use it. For me, the epiphany came when my adsense account was suspended years ago. For what I never found out. I appealed and was reinstated. I then pulled adsense from every site. Lesson learned, and I don't need to learn it again.
phogster 14y ago
I think "free" should be in quotes.
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  It would be humorous if sometimes when you opened your file in your Gdrive it was a media appropriate file containing an advertisement. Open it in a text editor get a text file ad, open it in an mp3 player get an audio ad, open it in a video viewer get a video ad. Not all the time of course, just now and then.
  - K2h 14y ago
    You get my vote, not because I think that is a good idea at all, but I agree that is about the most hilarious thing. Thats got to be Googles end game.
    - ppod 14y ago
      The ultimate endgame has to be a Google Online Bank, a Google Amazon, and a machine learning algorithms that bypasses advertising altogether and just buys you stuff before you even know you want it.
      - jpadkins 14y ago
        I think Google's ultimate endgame is a post-scarcity world. Where creators just create.
kyouens 14y ago
Should I worry about my privacy if I use this "free" service? I don't really want them to serve me targeted ads based on the contents of my Google Drive. I don't know whether they plan to do anything like this, but still. Giving Google access to my files (in addition to my email, social network, voice mail, contact list, calendar, and reading preferences . .) makes me uneasy.
- mhurron 14y ago
  > Should I worry about my privacy if I use this "free" service You should always worry about your privacy. Paid service or not. Google makes its money building a profile about what it knows about you. In the light of placing files there, make of that what you will.
  - kyouens 14y ago
    Yes, I think you're right. I guess my feeling is that I would rather pay for the service. That way I am the customer, I'm not the product.
    - fps 14y ago
      I've read that google's main goal for these free products is to increase the amount of time people spend online and not to monetize every bit of information that they come across. The more time people spend online, the more people see adsense ads. That's why Chrome and Android aren't spying on people's browsing habits like they technically could be, for example.
      - Drbble 14y ago
        And to profile everyone to optimize those ads. People watch plenty of ads on TV. Google is rich because they have very special data used to price the inventory effectively.
    - jrockway 14y ago
      That way I am the customer, I'm not the product. There are a lot of companies I do business with that have sold my name to advertisers. Paying a company money doesn't mean they aren't going to make money off of you some other way too.
robomartin 14y ago
OK, so now when they suspend your Google account you also get to experience loosing whatever you had in Google Drive. Just for this I am converting my Dropbox account into one of their paid packages to do my part in ensuring they stick around. One would hope that at one point Google might start to realize that the way they are handling accounts could work against their own interests. I --and I am sure others-- have exactly zero interest in touching any Google product other than Analytics because it can all go "poof" overnight if an algorithm doesn't like something you did somewhere...and you'll never know why and never have real recourse to attempt to fix it. Just to be clear: I love just about everything Google has done and what they generally stand for. The one thing I hate viscerally is their approach to customer-no-service and how that relates to accounts. This aspect of what they do and how they behave is nothing less than moronic and possibly evil.
- magicalist 14y ago
  That's the reality of the cloud though, you're really just objecting to having all your eggs in one basket. There were legitimate users of megaupload that didn't break any ToS or host child porn, but they can't get any of their files back. If it's like dropbox, though, it's probably the most likely google product that people will have backed up locally. I use selective sync with dropbox, but everything is on at least one of my computers. It actually would be really cool if Google Drive was the ultimate data liberation tool...even if your account is closed, you already have all of your google account data (emails, docs, etc) backed up in your Drive folder locally.
  - jessriedel 14y ago
    > It actually would be really cool if Google Drive was the ultimate data liberation tool...even if your account is closed, you already have all of your google account data (emails, docs, etc) backed up in your Drive folder locally. This is a fantastic idea! I would love to see more people clamor for this.
  - est 14y ago
    > you're really just objecting to having all your eggs in one basket. Not really, there are existing projects[1] which allows you to to split your files like RAID0 or RAID5 across different cloud storage providers, losing a single slice will not lose data. The best part is, since each cloud storage provider has an incomplete partial of data, it totally protects your privacy. [1]: https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs
roel_v 14y ago
If this thing works properly on Android, I'm dropping Dropbox in a heartbeat.
- aquinn 14y ago
  I switched to Ubuntu One. It has 5GB free and a decent android client.
- computerbob 14y ago
  What doesn't work for you on dropbox for android? I use it all the time and am wondering what sort of things I might be missing.
  - roel_v 14y ago
    ? It doesn't sync the whole dropbox, just one file at the time. That's not 'dropbox' as I know it and as it's useful, its a crutch, just barely better than ftp. I'm not sure what you mean by 'wondering what I'm missing' because Dropbox on Android is nothing like Dropbox on the desktop, the differences are obvious.
  - roel_v 14y ago
    Also, Dropbox is getting progressively worse over time, rather than better. The v2 of the Android client was even worse than v1 (although to be honest I don't remember in detail what it was that changed, just that it was a real nuisance when it changed, I don't use the 'official' client on Android any more). To be fair though, I just checked the Dropbox blog, and it seems that they did add file renames to v2. So, I guess that's one thing that got better. rollseyes The recent 'update' to the web UI is worse than what they had before - less information, navigation and discoverability have gotten worse, so much potential yet so little progress being made. I'm saying all this as a Dropbox for Teams subscriber, I'm paying these guys 800 USD / year, so I'm not a freeloading whiner.
- edwardy20 14y ago
  Try Dropsync, it works wonders.
stuckk 14y ago
eh. 5Gb? Skydrive has like 25
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  Skydrive is a sad joke that points out how many easy opportunities Microsoft has to leap frog Android and iCloud. They already have a huge cloud platform. They are have millions of Live users. They're finally integrating Live accounts as Windows accounts. They refuse to add dropbox like functionality to SkyDrive to make it possible to just have a set of files synced between all Windows (8, specifically) and WP devices. I've been told and have read various different reasons, but none of them were good. edit: Scrap this post, my information is embarrassingly outdated. Kudos to SkyDrive. Glad to see Microsoft utilizing their Live accounts.
  - mmmmbop 14y ago
    Uh, they have a dropbox-like client coming out soon. Also, I far prefer their web interface to dropbox's. I see no reason to continue using dropbox once skydrive client comes out. ...unless you're on linux :)
    - drivebyacct2 14y ago
      Actually, again to make up for my inaccurate post, I have to give them kudos. I believe they're rolling out an oAuth api for SkyDrive so someone could build a linux client.
    - freehunter 14y ago
      The beauty of Skydrive is, it's WebDAV. You can mount it in Windows, you can mount it in OSX, you can mount it in Linux. There isn't a native client yet, but it doesn't strictly need one to work at a basic level.
  - Elepsis 14y ago
    How about "it's just not out yet"? http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/02/20/connecting-your-apps_2c00_-files_2c00_-pcs-and-devices-to-the-cloud-with-skydrive-and-windows-8.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/02/20/connecting-you...
kylec 14y ago
I'm hoping this will compel Dropbox to reevaluate their pricing structure. Storage from Google is an order of magnitude cheaper than Dropbox - paid storage starts at $5/year, and for the same $100/year as the cheapest Dropbox account (50GB) you get 8x the capacity.
- fl3tch 14y ago
  Or at least offer something in between $0 and $100/yr, like 10 GB for $20/yr and 20 GB for $40/yr (same price per GB as the 50 GB plan).
  - T-hawk 14y ago
    That runs you into pathological customer territory. People who care about the difference between $20/year and $40/year are not going to be sources of any significant profit, and statistically are the sort that will consume customer service resources for help with trivial issues. Remember that if just one out of five folks who would sign up at $20/year convinces themselves to spend $100/year, you come out ahead.
- Drbble 14y ago
  Or Dropbox could press for a US antitrust investigation as Google enters yet another market to dump free product financed by its search and web ad business.
  - jrockway 14y ago
    You can already upload and share files on Google. It's called "Google Docs".
- machrider 14y ago
  Dropbox is running on top of S3. If you look at the S3 pricing per GB for storage and bandwidth, it's not exactly cheap. Back of the envelope, I'm guessing a 50GB account costs Dropbox something like $3-$4 per month. Their $9.99 plan can't really go down by an order of magnitude and still be profitable.
pritam2020 14y ago
As usual, concerned about privacy.
MatthewPhillips 14y ago
What specific problem does this fix for the Google ecosystem? This feels very Microsoftian. Very "we must compete in every market" without good reason.
- ajross 14y ago
  Google got its start by walking into an existing (and frankly much more mature) market for search and competing with the existing players "without reason". Likewise advertising was pretty well served before they showed up. And I'm pretty sure email predates their dominant platform there, too. I'm not sure what's "Microsoftian" about this in particular, but it's certainly "Googly". Honestly, this (and a lot of the other posts here) sounds more like sports cheering to me than analysis. Dropbox is part of the "YC team", so their competitors are the bad guys?
  - alsocasey 14y ago
    GMail competes but isn't dominant yet - latest numbers of total registered user puts it on par with both Yahoo and Hotmail at ~350 million users.
  - ok_craig 14y ago
    > Honestly, this (and a lot of the other posts here) sounds more like sports cheering to me than analysis. Dropbox is part of the "YC team", so their competitors are the bad guys? Holy crap. I finally understand why Hacker News users hate Google.
  - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
    I neither own Dropbox stock nor know anyone employed by them, so the poisoning the well wasn't necessary. I'm talking strictly about Google. It's not 2004, Google is sitting at enough poker tables right now, they don't need to join another unless there is a very good reason to do so (a hole in their ecosystem, for one).
    - ajross 14y ago
      I have no financial stake in the New England Patriots, nor do I know anyone employed by them. I still hate Peyton Manning (OK, poor analogy this season, but still). The final sentence seems ridiculous on its face. Read simply, it sounds like you think Google shouldn't be doing product development at all. There's a word for tech companies that stop "joining new tables": "stagnant".
RuggeroAltair 14y ago
Same reason I don't want $everything-facebook I also don't want $everything-google. Plus google has little to zero experience at offering big products on non unix/android platforms. EDIT: I didn't literally mean zero, since I'm writing from Chrome
- albertsun 14y ago
  Err.... Chrome? Google Earth? There are others too.
  - RuggeroAltair 14y ago
    Sorry, I just wrote too fast and didn't want to get into details. Of course I didn't mean literally they had zero experience, I am writing from Chrome and use Google Earth pretty often myself (SketchUp etc...). I just wonder how many apple and windows developers they have and how many projects they have to follow/develop. Personally, I'd prefer Dropbox, since it's a company dedicated to one thing and so far they have been doing it well. I'm happy that google has their own product so that I can have more free space and potentially it'll lower the price of such services in general. If it gets much better than Dropbox I'll switch completely, but let's see what this better is. For example, I don't need to edit documents with google docs, since I can never manage to print anything decent with it. So for me, integration of Google Drive and Google Docs wouldn't be a good enough extra feature.
goronbjorn 14y ago
In terms of the business side of this, I think many people are missing the potential Google has with integrating this into Google Apps. A very, very large number of businesses use Google Apps for email/calendar.The whole enterprise cloud storage market is very crowded right now, and Google would have a huge advantage in terms of having that initial foot in the door.
wei2012 14y ago
OMG...Finally arrived, Perhaps it is not another 20% project that they don't care....
idont 14y ago
What about the most important feature: encryption. Can we use a private key?
- Drbble 14y ago
  Why wouldn't you be able to? If you are allowed to store arbitrary binary files, it's just bytes to Google.
tdtran 14y ago
Sorry for sounding cynical but I am realy curious about the quality of GDrive client apps. The one for Android probably will be good. But I am unsure about the other platforms. Check out Google's "native" GMail app for iOS to see what I mean.
- Drbble 14y ago
  It's not an app, it's a file sync. Check out the Contact Sync "app" on a Mac.
nextstep 14y ago
Congrats, Google. Only ~2 years after the idea was revolutionary.
Inufu 14y ago
The article mentions 23 GB of storage upgrades for HTC users. Can I also get that on my old HTC Desire S? Or do I need a new phone for that?
- Raphael 14y ago
  It's part of the pre-installed Dropbox application on newer HTC phones. Some people have copied it and used it on other phones to get the storage upgrade.
  - camiller 14y ago
    ...plus I think it says "...for two years" or something to that effect.
gojomo 14y ago
'Drive' is kind of a backward-looking name – the evolution of both appliance devices and the cloud means people have less reason to think of 'floppy drives', 'hard drives' and 'flash drives' than ever before. Also, the Google self-driving cars have had more popular attention lately than their cloud storage feints... so many people seeing "Google Drive coming soon" are going to think it's the computer-driver.
- zerostar07 14y ago
  Since there is no driver, it will probably be Google Cars (tm)
  - Drbble 14y ago
    gCar. Already launched in China.
cdvonstinkpot 14y ago
Sounds like they might use a webdav connection the way the story talks about folders working. I was hoping for more from a story whose title uses the word 'detailed'.
jmcantrell 14y ago
I guess Linux gets the shaft?
- Craiggybear 14y ago
  Yeah -- no mention of a linux client. Shame on them.
- angryasian 14y ago
  its called rsync
est 14y ago
I for one does not think it has any chance competing agaist Dropbox. Every Google client software hasn't been updated for decades. What's the last time you saw an update to that native Google Talk windows client? Google Desktop for Windows? Desktop Search? Google makes desktop clients in a half assed way. It will never be half decent as Dropbox.
- skystorm 14y ago
  I don't necessarily disagree with you, but at least in the case of Google Talk you could argue that the client software has been superseded by web-based interfaces and/or browser extensions. And other programs like Google Earth and Picasa have received continued updates.
- Drbble 14y ago
  Sync is only one feature. It doesn't need updates.
- JanLaussmann 14y ago
  Google Chrome is regularly updated.
jackreichert 14y ago
8 years ago gmail launched with a whopping 1GB, back then it was HUGE. Have storage costs plateaued so that now 8 years later the best they can offer is 5GB?
- Drbble 14y ago
  When Gmail launched, quota was 1GB in numeric counter that was constantly growing even while you viewed the quota on an otherwise static pages. Drive may be similar. Also, back then it was nearly impossible to fill 1GB with email and restricted attachments. 1GB was mostly a gimmick. Now people can fill 5GB throttle only for a day or two by their network uplink speed.
danebaker 14y ago
This is biting Dropbox in the arse in more ways than one: Dropbox has had years to improve their service, add a huge amount of features, and take this concept to new heights. What have they done? Redesigned their Web site? Gee.
kirmaz 14y ago
Ok so now they can analyze my file content too and serve ads based on that ;)
Sami_Lehtinen 14y ago
Adrive.com offers 50 GB of free space and has already offered for years.
epaga 14y ago
Since Dropbox (and presumably Google) store files only once globally, mapped to the file's hash, it makes me wonder when Google (or Dropbox?) will let you search and then add anybody's (public) files to your cloud account with a single click. That means no more downloading from some slow web site, and then uploading it to the cloud again. Since Google most likely already has the file you're wanting somewhere, all you'd need to say is "I want that file, too" and it will be added to your cloud account. Google could do their own version of MegaUpload pretty easily that way...
gouranga 14y ago
Seriously - 5Gb in 2012? For any Windows users, just use SkyDrive and Windows Live Mesh - it works wonderfully, is very reliable and has a decent TOS which respects user privacy and your data. You get 25Gb for free, OneNote (which rocks), Word and Excel online. All work transparently with Office on the desktop and office on Windows Phone. My data is synchronised flawlessly between my three PCs and Windows Phone (and has done for the last 3 years, bar the phone which is a new addition). It never resides entirely in the cloud - it is mirrored everywhere so there is no risk if the account is pulled. It generally feels like I have one computer. It's how it should be done and is very under appreciated by the tech community.
- riobard 14y ago
  It's how it should be done and is very under appreciated by the tech community. Because the tech community no longer use Microsoft products?
  - gouranga 14y ago
    The narcissistic, English speaking, vocal and startup side of the tech community don't. The rest of us do.
    - qxcv 14y ago
      GP has a valid point, Windows usership is less prevalent amongst those with the technical know-how to install and use Windows alternatives than in the general public. Google don't have a vested interest in operating system compatibility outside of mobile, meaning that they can open themselves up to a larger potential market than Microsoft have with Skydrive.
JohnnyFlash 14y ago
I won't be using this. Google already have my emails, my search history, a chunk of my documents, a chunk of my appointments. Now they can access the files on my computer? I think not!
tbergeron 14y ago
I always loved Google for so much reasons. They knew how to bring amazing, fast and useful stuff to the table but then they lost themselves trying to make a "Walmart" out of themselves. They [started to] (some may say they always did) imitate other successful services, some with success and some with huge failures (many of their social network attempts have been failures). But since about a year, it seems like they're turning from the "good guys" to the "bad guys". They try to kick every successful company out of their specializations. (Kick Facebook with Google+, Kick Spotify with Google Music, Kick Dropbox with Google Drive, etc). I really hate the way they're taking to always get more and more of our data. Sorry Google but after almost ten years of service, I'm currently moving all my data somewhere else.
Shorel 14y ago
I don't care too much about more free space (but it is good). What I want and need: be able to sync different folders to different accounts in the same computer (I can't do this in Dropbox). Be able to choose whatever folder I want for the sync. Be able to 'subscribe' to folders from third parties without affecting my free space. The first company to do this will win the market. (And it will compete indirectly with SVN and Git when used for documents too).

183 points by Braasch 14y ago

This doesn't seem to have any new details on the service other than that its 5GB and launching on Mac/Windows/iOS/Android, which is all in line with expectations. Given all the recent leaks, it really doesn't seem like Google's doing much more than cloning Dropbox. Was I the only one expecting Google to knock this one out of the park, a la Gmail's introduction?

rollypolly 14y ago
Cloning dropbox at this point would not compel me to switch. I think Google is smarter than that. I'm looking forward to their announcement.
- nik_0_0 14y ago
  I agree, Google has some of the smartest Software Engineers, a huge amount of capital, and really they could have spent as little or as much time on this as they wanted. I truly hope it doesn't end up another Google+ vs. Facebook type comparison. Lots of room for new players in this market, but there needs to be innovation.
- camiller 14y ago
  However, folks like me that are not already using Dropbox, but do already use a whole host of Google services... well, I'm probably going to have 5GB free next week.
stuartmemo 14y ago
Is the launch date of next week not new info?
cleverjake 14y ago
>>This doesn't seem to have any new details on the service other than that its 5GB and launching on Mac/Windows/iOS/Android, which is all in line with expectations. The author mentions they have a draft of the release from a launch partner. That feels a lot more substantial than just rumors, to me. >> Given all the recent leaks, it really doesn't seem like Google's doing much more than cloning Dropbox. In the sense that they are creating a cloud storage option?I suppose. I would almost guaranty it will have extreme android integration, which would give it an obvious advantage over any other cloud storage app on android. >>Was I the only one expecting Google to knock this one out of the park, a la Gmail's introduction? We haven't seen the announcement, so saying that feels a bit early, but realistically, I am not sure what they could do that would be terribly interesting. GMail was amazing becuaae every other web mail platform sucked. Dropbox is awesome though, so they will lack the contrast to make them look better this time around.
halo 14y ago
A Dropbox clone with a better Android client would make me switch immediately. The Android Dropbox client doesn't even let you download folders at once, only individual files.
- jpadkins 14y ago
  just curious.. what file types do you want on your phone? I don't have a use case for mobile file syncing for myself.
  - karlmarxman 14y ago
    If you have a decent-length metro commute to work, you could move a couple documents that you wanted to look over into your dropbox folder from your computer at home and open them up from your phone on your way in or during a lunch break.
- statenjason 14y ago
  ES File Explorer will let you download a folder from Dropbox.
Karunamon 14y ago
Was I the only one expecting Google to knock this one out of the park, a la Gmail's introduction? It's all about the integration. File locker service? Yawn. Everybody and their dog has a new one. File locker service that's tightly integrated with what is (subjectively, to me) the best online collaboration suite available? And is priced to beat all competitors? Yes please.
krzyk 14y ago
It doesn't have a Linux client? What are they thinking?

stuartmemo 14y ago

My ideal storage solution would be one where I'm not restricted to syncing my own local data. I want to be able to upload it to the cloud then delete it from my HD. This is the mentality I'm used to from Gmail. Everything is archived online and I don't need a local copy. This would surely tie in with the thinking behind the Chromebook?

wvenable 14y ago
> Everything is archived online and I don't need a local copy. Even with Gmail, I hope you have a second copy of your data somewhere. You never know when your account might just disappear.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  I think these concerns are vastly overstated, TBQH. The great majority of people seem to have no such issue with their accounts disappearing. It's one of those exceedingly rare but potentially catastrophic things, kind of like a nuclear reactor meltdown or being struck by lightning.
  - fluidcruft 14y ago
    If it was actually rare, wouldn't Google have nothing to lose by offering the safety blanket of real-live support (even if paid per-incident)?
    - Karunamon 14y ago
      You can already get paid support.. by having an Apps account. This gets you access to an actual support line for emergency issues like, say, being unable to log in. Not to mention a pretty reasonable SLA. At $50 a year, it's quite nice to have.
      - fluidcruft 14y ago
        Too bad I can't do that for the @gmail account I've been using.

web_chops 14y ago

We worked on a startup product a few months which is currently shelved. It had a file system like interface and simplified moving files between dropbox, amazon S3, google docs and multiple accounts (any one with two dropbox accounts ?). With all this google drive news, its pretty tempting to bring it back to life :)

K2h 14y ago
why not put a raid file system between the free offerings. you get a larger total size faster transfers (ha, like my 6Mbit DSL cares =( and.... redundancy, which solves the 'everyone scared of the cloud' problem.
nikcub 14y ago
This is what the future of online storage will be, but it won't be google/dropbox/amazon etc. but rather 'your wordprocessor'/'your email'/'your social network' etc. adding a compatibility layer between storage networks is a temporary fix for when a standard is formed.

jacquesm 14y ago

We've seen this before. It was called google video. Google ended up buying youtube because even they could no longer deny they'd lost the battle and they couldn't risk it going to a competitor. Dropbox is in for a rough ride, as long as they can maintain focus and quality (beat them at customer support, that should be a walk in the park) they'll be the biggest YC exit ever once Google has run its course with the Google Drive.

feral 14y ago
There are huge network effects at play with youtube. People discover new content (related videos) as they browse the site. With Dropbox, it seems, to me, like there are much fewer network effects at play. I don't know what percentage of activity on Dropbox involves sharing between Dropbox customers, but I'd guess its low? I also think its a big deal that I already sign into my Google account on every computer I use; if my files are just going to be there, with my docs, mail and calendar, I'm probably not going to use another service.
- ry0ohki 14y ago
  I don't know, that's one of the biggest benefits of Dropbox, I tell someone I'll add a shared drive and 9 times out of ten they already have a Dropbox account (in my tech world bubble at least)
  - nostromo 14y ago
    Times they already have a Google account: 10/10
    - GoodIntentions 14y ago
      Yeah, but some folks have come to the same conclusion as jacquesm ( above ) and use the big G as little as possible. Sure, I have a google account. I almost never use it. For me, the epiphany came when my adsense account was suspended years ago. For what I never found out. I appealed and was reinstated. I then pulled adsense from every site. Lesson learned, and I don't need to learn it again.

phogster 14y ago

I think "free" should be in quotes.

ChuckMcM 14y ago
It would be humorous if sometimes when you opened your file in your Gdrive it was a media appropriate file containing an advertisement. Open it in a text editor get a text file ad, open it in an mp3 player get an audio ad, open it in a video viewer get a video ad. Not all the time of course, just now and then.
- K2h 14y ago
  You get my vote, not because I think that is a good idea at all, but I agree that is about the most hilarious thing. Thats got to be Googles end game.
  - ppod 14y ago
    The ultimate endgame has to be a Google Online Bank, a Google Amazon, and a machine learning algorithms that bypasses advertising altogether and just buys you stuff before you even know you want it.
    - jpadkins 14y ago
      I think Google's ultimate endgame is a post-scarcity world. Where creators just create.

kyouens 14y ago

Should I worry about my privacy if I use this "free" service? I don't really want them to serve me targeted ads based on the contents of my Google Drive. I don't know whether they plan to do anything like this, but still. Giving Google access to my files (in addition to my email, social network, voice mail, contact list, calendar, and reading preferences . .) makes me uneasy.

mhurron 14y ago
> Should I worry about my privacy if I use this "free" service You should always worry about your privacy. Paid service or not. Google makes its money building a profile about what it knows about you. In the light of placing files there, make of that what you will.
- kyouens 14y ago
  Yes, I think you're right. I guess my feeling is that I would rather pay for the service. That way I am the customer, I'm not the product.
  - fps 14y ago
    I've read that google's main goal for these free products is to increase the amount of time people spend online and not to monetize every bit of information that they come across. The more time people spend online, the more people see adsense ads. That's why Chrome and Android aren't spying on people's browsing habits like they technically could be, for example.
    - Drbble 14y ago
      And to profile everyone to optimize those ads. People watch plenty of ads on TV. Google is rich because they have very special data used to price the inventory effectively.
  - jrockway 14y ago
    That way I am the customer, I'm not the product. There are a lot of companies I do business with that have sold my name to advertisers. Paying a company money doesn't mean they aren't going to make money off of you some other way too.

robomartin 14y ago

OK, so now when they suspend your Google account you also get to experience loosing whatever you had in Google Drive. Just for this I am converting my Dropbox account into one of their paid packages to do my part in ensuring they stick around. One would hope that at one point Google might start to realize that the way they are handling accounts could work against their own interests. I --and I am sure others-- have exactly zero interest in touching any Google product other than Analytics because it can all go "poof" overnight if an algorithm doesn't like something you did somewhere...and you'll never know why and never have real recourse to attempt to fix it. Just to be clear: I love just about everything Google has done and what they generally stand for. The one thing I hate viscerally is their approach to customer-no-service and how that relates to accounts. This aspect of what they do and how they behave is nothing less than moronic and possibly evil.

magicalist 14y ago
That's the reality of the cloud though, you're really just objecting to having all your eggs in one basket. There were legitimate users of megaupload that didn't break any ToS or host child porn, but they can't get any of their files back. If it's like dropbox, though, it's probably the most likely google product that people will have backed up locally. I use selective sync with dropbox, but everything is on at least one of my computers. It actually would be really cool if Google Drive was the ultimate data liberation tool...even if your account is closed, you already have all of your google account data (emails, docs, etc) backed up in your Drive folder locally.
- jessriedel 14y ago
  > It actually would be really cool if Google Drive was the ultimate data liberation tool...even if your account is closed, you already have all of your google account data (emails, docs, etc) backed up in your Drive folder locally. This is a fantastic idea! I would love to see more people clamor for this.
- est 14y ago
  > you're really just objecting to having all your eggs in one basket. Not really, there are existing projects[1] which allows you to to split your files like RAID0 or RAID5 across different cloud storage providers, losing a single slice will not lose data. The best part is, since each cloud storage provider has an incomplete partial of data, it totally protects your privacy. [1]: https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs

roel_v 14y ago

If this thing works properly on Android, I'm dropping Dropbox in a heartbeat.

aquinn 14y ago
I switched to Ubuntu One. It has 5GB free and a decent android client.
computerbob 14y ago
What doesn't work for you on dropbox for android? I use it all the time and am wondering what sort of things I might be missing.
- roel_v 14y ago
  ? It doesn't sync the whole dropbox, just one file at the time. That's not 'dropbox' as I know it and as it's useful, its a crutch, just barely better than ftp. I'm not sure what you mean by 'wondering what I'm missing' because Dropbox on Android is nothing like Dropbox on the desktop, the differences are obvious.
- roel_v 14y ago
  Also, Dropbox is getting progressively worse over time, rather than better. The v2 of the Android client was even worse than v1 (although to be honest I don't remember in detail what it was that changed, just that it was a real nuisance when it changed, I don't use the 'official' client on Android any more). To be fair though, I just checked the Dropbox blog, and it seems that they did add file renames to v2. So, I guess that's one thing that got better. rollseyes The recent 'update' to the web UI is worse than what they had before - less information, navigation and discoverability have gotten worse, so much potential yet so little progress being made. I'm saying all this as a Dropbox for Teams subscriber, I'm paying these guys 800 USD / year, so I'm not a freeloading whiner.
edwardy20 14y ago
Try Dropsync, it works wonders.

stuckk 14y ago

eh. 5Gb? Skydrive has like 25

drivebyacct2 14y ago
Skydrive is a sad joke that points out how many easy opportunities Microsoft has to leap frog Android and iCloud. They already have a huge cloud platform. They are have millions of Live users. They're finally integrating Live accounts as Windows accounts. They refuse to add dropbox like functionality to SkyDrive to make it possible to just have a set of files synced between all Windows (8, specifically) and WP devices. I've been told and have read various different reasons, but none of them were good. edit: Scrap this post, my information is embarrassingly outdated. Kudos to SkyDrive. Glad to see Microsoft utilizing their Live accounts.
- mmmmbop 14y ago
  Uh, they have a dropbox-like client coming out soon. Also, I far prefer their web interface to dropbox's. I see no reason to continue using dropbox once skydrive client comes out. ...unless you're on linux :)
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    Actually, again to make up for my inaccurate post, I have to give them kudos. I believe they're rolling out an oAuth api for SkyDrive so someone could build a linux client.
  - freehunter 14y ago
    The beauty of Skydrive is, it's WebDAV. You can mount it in Windows, you can mount it in OSX, you can mount it in Linux. There isn't a native client yet, but it doesn't strictly need one to work at a basic level.
- Elepsis 14y ago
  How about "it's just not out yet"? http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/02/20/connecting-your-apps_2c00_-files_2c00_-pcs-and-devices-to-the-cloud-with-skydrive-and-windows-8.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/02/20/connecting-you...

kylec 14y ago

I'm hoping this will compel Dropbox to reevaluate their pricing structure. Storage from Google is an order of magnitude cheaper than Dropbox - paid storage starts at $5/year, and for the same $100/year as the cheapest Dropbox account (50GB) you get 8x the capacity.

fl3tch 14y ago
Or at least offer something in between $0 and $100/yr, like 10 GB for $20/yr and 20 GB for $40/yr (same price per GB as the 50 GB plan).
- T-hawk 14y ago
  That runs you into pathological customer territory. People who care about the difference between $20/year and $40/year are not going to be sources of any significant profit, and statistically are the sort that will consume customer service resources for help with trivial issues. Remember that if just one out of five folks who would sign up at $20/year convinces themselves to spend $100/year, you come out ahead.
Drbble 14y ago
Or Dropbox could press for a US antitrust investigation as Google enters yet another market to dump free product financed by its search and web ad business.
- jrockway 14y ago
  You can already upload and share files on Google. It's called "Google Docs".
machrider 14y ago
Dropbox is running on top of S3. If you look at the S3 pricing per GB for storage and bandwidth, it's not exactly cheap. Back of the envelope, I'm guessing a 50GB account costs Dropbox something like $3-$4 per month. Their $9.99 plan can't really go down by an order of magnitude and still be profitable.

pritam2020 14y ago

As usual, concerned about privacy.

MatthewPhillips 14y ago

What specific problem does this fix for the Google ecosystem? This feels very Microsoftian. Very "we must compete in every market" without good reason.

ajross 14y ago
Google got its start by walking into an existing (and frankly much more mature) market for search and competing with the existing players "without reason". Likewise advertising was pretty well served before they showed up. And I'm pretty sure email predates their dominant platform there, too. I'm not sure what's "Microsoftian" about this in particular, but it's certainly "Googly". Honestly, this (and a lot of the other posts here) sounds more like sports cheering to me than analysis. Dropbox is part of the "YC team", so their competitors are the bad guys?
- alsocasey 14y ago
  GMail competes but isn't dominant yet - latest numbers of total registered user puts it on par with both Yahoo and Hotmail at ~350 million users.
- ok_craig 14y ago
  > Honestly, this (and a lot of the other posts here) sounds more like sports cheering to me than analysis. Dropbox is part of the "YC team", so their competitors are the bad guys? Holy crap. I finally understand why Hacker News users hate Google.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  I neither own Dropbox stock nor know anyone employed by them, so the poisoning the well wasn't necessary. I'm talking strictly about Google. It's not 2004, Google is sitting at enough poker tables right now, they don't need to join another unless there is a very good reason to do so (a hole in their ecosystem, for one).
  - ajross 14y ago
    I have no financial stake in the New England Patriots, nor do I know anyone employed by them. I still hate Peyton Manning (OK, poor analogy this season, but still). The final sentence seems ridiculous on its face. Read simply, it sounds like you think Google shouldn't be doing product development at all. There's a word for tech companies that stop "joining new tables": "stagnant".

RuggeroAltair 14y ago

Same reason I don't want $everything-facebook I also don't want $everything-google. Plus google has little to zero experience at offering big products on non unix/android platforms. EDIT: I didn't literally mean zero, since I'm writing from Chrome

albertsun 14y ago
Err.... Chrome? Google Earth? There are others too.
- RuggeroAltair 14y ago
  Sorry, I just wrote too fast and didn't want to get into details. Of course I didn't mean literally they had zero experience, I am writing from Chrome and use Google Earth pretty often myself (SketchUp etc...). I just wonder how many apple and windows developers they have and how many projects they have to follow/develop. Personally, I'd prefer Dropbox, since it's a company dedicated to one thing and so far they have been doing it well. I'm happy that google has their own product so that I can have more free space and potentially it'll lower the price of such services in general. If it gets much better than Dropbox I'll switch completely, but let's see what this better is. For example, I don't need to edit documents with google docs, since I can never manage to print anything decent with it. So for me, integration of Google Drive and Google Docs wouldn't be a good enough extra feature.

goronbjorn 14y ago

In terms of the business side of this, I think many people are missing the potential Google has with integrating this into Google Apps. A very, very large number of businesses use Google Apps for email/calendar.The whole enterprise cloud storage market is very crowded right now, and Google would have a huge advantage in terms of having that initial foot in the door.

wei2012 14y ago

OMG...Finally arrived, Perhaps it is not another 20% project that they don't care....

idont 14y ago

What about the most important feature: encryption. Can we use a private key?

Drbble 14y ago
Why wouldn't you be able to? If you are allowed to store arbitrary binary files, it's just bytes to Google.

tdtran 14y ago

Sorry for sounding cynical but I am realy curious about the quality of GDrive client apps. The one for Android probably will be good. But I am unsure about the other platforms. Check out Google's "native" GMail app for iOS to see what I mean.

Drbble 14y ago
It's not an app, it's a file sync. Check out the Contact Sync "app" on a Mac.

nextstep 14y ago

Congrats, Google. Only ~2 years after the idea was revolutionary.

Inufu 14y ago

The article mentions 23 GB of storage upgrades for HTC users. Can I also get that on my old HTC Desire S? Or do I need a new phone for that?

Raphael 14y ago
It's part of the pre-installed Dropbox application on newer HTC phones. Some people have copied it and used it on other phones to get the storage upgrade.
- camiller 14y ago
  ...plus I think it says "...for two years" or something to that effect.

gojomo 14y ago

'Drive' is kind of a backward-looking name – the evolution of both appliance devices and the cloud means people have less reason to think of 'floppy drives', 'hard drives' and 'flash drives' than ever before. Also, the Google self-driving cars have had more popular attention lately than their cloud storage feints... so many people seeing "Google Drive coming soon" are going to think it's the computer-driver.

zerostar07 14y ago
Since there is no driver, it will probably be Google Cars (tm)
- Drbble 14y ago
  gCar. Already launched in China.

cdvonstinkpot 14y ago

Sounds like they might use a webdav connection the way the story talks about folders working. I was hoping for more from a story whose title uses the word 'detailed'.

jmcantrell 14y ago

I guess Linux gets the shaft?

Craiggybear 14y ago
Yeah -- no mention of a linux client. Shame on them.
angryasian 14y ago
its called rsync

est 14y ago

I for one does not think it has any chance competing agaist Dropbox. Every Google client software hasn't been updated for decades. What's the last time you saw an update to that native Google Talk windows client? Google Desktop for Windows? Desktop Search? Google makes desktop clients in a half assed way. It will never be half decent as Dropbox.

skystorm 14y ago
I don't necessarily disagree with you, but at least in the case of Google Talk you could argue that the client software has been superseded by web-based interfaces and/or browser extensions. And other programs like Google Earth and Picasa have received continued updates.
Drbble 14y ago
Sync is only one feature. It doesn't need updates.
JanLaussmann 14y ago
Google Chrome is regularly updated.

jackreichert 14y ago

8 years ago gmail launched with a whopping 1GB, back then it was HUGE. Have storage costs plateaued so that now 8 years later the best they can offer is 5GB?

Drbble 14y ago
When Gmail launched, quota was 1GB in numeric counter that was constantly growing even while you viewed the quota on an otherwise static pages. Drive may be similar. Also, back then it was nearly impossible to fill 1GB with email and restricted attachments. 1GB was mostly a gimmick. Now people can fill 5GB throttle only for a day or two by their network uplink speed.

danebaker 14y ago

This is biting Dropbox in the arse in more ways than one: Dropbox has had years to improve their service, add a huge amount of features, and take this concept to new heights. What have they done? Redesigned their Web site? Gee.

kirmaz 14y ago

Ok so now they can analyze my file content too and serve ads based on that ;)

Sami_Lehtinen 14y ago

Adrive.com offers 50 GB of free space and has already offered for years.

epaga 14y ago

Since Dropbox (and presumably Google) store files only once globally, mapped to the file's hash, it makes me wonder when Google (or Dropbox?) will let you search and then add anybody's (public) files to your cloud account with a single click. That means no more downloading from some slow web site, and then uploading it to the cloud again. Since Google most likely already has the file you're wanting somewhere, all you'd need to say is "I want that file, too" and it will be added to your cloud account. Google could do their own version of MegaUpload pretty easily that way...

gouranga 14y ago

Seriously - 5Gb in 2012? For any Windows users, just use SkyDrive and Windows Live Mesh - it works wonderfully, is very reliable and has a decent TOS which respects user privacy and your data. You get 25Gb for free, OneNote (which rocks), Word and Excel online. All work transparently with Office on the desktop and office on Windows Phone. My data is synchronised flawlessly between my three PCs and Windows Phone (and has done for the last 3 years, bar the phone which is a new addition). It never resides entirely in the cloud - it is mirrored everywhere so there is no risk if the account is pulled. It generally feels like I have one computer. It's how it should be done and is very under appreciated by the tech community.

riobard 14y ago
It's how it should be done and is very under appreciated by the tech community. Because the tech community no longer use Microsoft products?
- gouranga 14y ago
  The narcissistic, English speaking, vocal and startup side of the tech community don't. The rest of us do.
  - qxcv 14y ago
    GP has a valid point, Windows usership is less prevalent amongst those with the technical know-how to install and use Windows alternatives than in the general public. Google don't have a vested interest in operating system compatibility outside of mobile, meaning that they can open themselves up to a larger potential market than Microsoft have with Skydrive.

JohnnyFlash 14y ago

I won't be using this. Google already have my emails, my search history, a chunk of my documents, a chunk of my appointments. Now they can access the files on my computer? I think not!

tbergeron 14y ago

I always loved Google for so much reasons. They knew how to bring amazing, fast and useful stuff to the table but then they lost themselves trying to make a "Walmart" out of themselves. They [started to] (some may say they always did) imitate other successful services, some with success and some with huge failures (many of their social network attempts have been failures). But since about a year, it seems like they're turning from the "good guys" to the "bad guys". They try to kick every successful company out of their specializations. (Kick Facebook with Google+, Kick Spotify with Google Music, Kick Dropbox with Google Drive, etc). I really hate the way they're taking to always get more and more of our data. Sorry Google but after almost ten years of service, I'm currently moving all my data somewhere else.

Shorel 14y ago

I don't care too much about more free space (but it is good). What I want and need: be able to sync different folders to different accounts in the same computer (I can't do this in Dropbox). Be able to choose whatever folder I want for the sync. Be able to 'subscribe' to folders from third parties without affecting my free space. The first company to do this will win the market. (And it will compete indirectly with SVN and Git when used for documents too).