8 ms·

Here's the most important paragraph in the blog post that most people will gloss over (because Google glossed over it): "Drive is built to work seamlessly with

Here's the most important paragraph in the blog post that most people will gloss over (because Google glossed over it): "Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience. You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you’ll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail. Drive is also an open platform, so we’re working with many third-party developers so you can do things like send faxes, edit videos and create website mockups directly from Drive. To install these apps, visit the Chrome Web Store—and look out for even more useful apps in the future." Specifically the app integration ecosystem they're creating with the Chrome Web Store is extremely interesting. There's documentation for developers here: https://developers.google.com/drive/ https://developers.google.com/drive/ Basically, you register your app against certain mime types, and then when users install your app into Chrome, they can now open those file types directly from Drive using your app, seamlessly. It's Windows' "open with" dialogue, except on the Web. That's a big deal, because while everyone expected Drive to offer features that compete with Dropbox, this feature competes with operating systems. I think it's a brilliant move that shows Google thinking ahead and beyond what Dropbox is doing.

daenz 14y ago
> Basically, you register your app against certain mime types, and then when users install your app into Chrome, they can now open those file types directly from Drive using your app, seamlessly. It took a minute for it to hit me how brilliant that is. I'm really interested if webgl developers will do anything interesting with this.
knes 14y ago
I'm really looking forward to see this because the few apps that used Dropbox for this where brilliant, for example CineXplayer on iOS to store videos.
primigenus 14y ago
Some more thoughts on where this could go in the future: This whole thing is great for Chrome OS and Chromebooks. Right now, using a Chromebook is an experience that comes with a lot of sacrifice. You can't really do much with a lot of the files that you're used to using on Windows. You're locked to a browser UI that limits your flexibility. But with the upcoming new Aura UI and Google Drive, suddenly you've now got an experience very similar to Windows. You have a desktop that you can put apps on, and you can open arbitrary files using any app that supports it and is available in the store. Now the distance between Windows and Chrome OS is suddenly very small relative to how large it was last year. This makes me very excited to find out what Google plans to talk about at Google I/O. I wouldn't be surprised if they introduced a new Chromebook model built around the coming together of the new UI and Drive.
magicalist 14y ago
Interesting. I didn't see any reference to them in a quick scan, but it would be great if this worked with Web Intents as well.
amirmc 14y ago
"You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+" And this reminded me how much stuff I already have sitting in Google. A minor glitch last week meant I couldn't access my webmail (though I primarily use IMAP), which made me start thinking about this. I'm really pleased to see Drive come out but at the moment I feel reluctant to put too much stuff into it because I become even more dependent on the big G (and I'm actually surprised I feel this way and it's only a recent thing). Perhaps this feeling will fade but I'm not sure. Having an OS on my machine is great since the maker (MS/Apple) can't simply turn it off. Having Google become my "cloud OS" makes me nervous.
- magicalist 14y ago
  Well it's a good thing a major point of the product is the local copy :)
  - amirmc 14y ago
    Yes, but that's not really what concerns me. It's that my workflow runs through those services. To clarify, email (basically your identity online), calendars, device syncing, now file-sharing can be run through Google (and I'm sure a whole lot of other things too). If these were to disappear* I'd basically be left with a nice shiny box, where I could 'work' but in a much more limited way. It would feel like being on a digital desert island (e.g. I do this now by working in places that don't have wireless and letting things 'sync' when I'm back online). I guess I'm just wondering how few companies are in a position to offer services like these, resulting in Google getting all my stuff. It's not bad per se but it is making me wonder what my options really are. (edits for clarity) *I'm referring to the odd story of people getting locked out of google accounts. I know it's rare.
    - Jebus 14y ago
      You can have some degree of peace of mind by using your own domain (it's very easy to set up in gmail). This way, if google ever decides to f*ck you, at least you can set up your own mail server (better than having your life ruined, depending on how important your email address is for you) and move on.
vibrunazo 14y ago
Does any of the cloud competitors already offer a similar api that would let my app users use their infra instead of mine? Or associate my app into their ui? Or is this a novel from google?
- NZ_Matt 14y ago
  Windows 8 and Skydrive has a similar concept built into it called contracts. Developers can integrate their app to work with Windows 8's UI. For example you can search your Flikr or Facebook directly in the OS in the same way that you search the file system. Here's a video demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hesj1I_wsqI#t=12m00s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hesj1I_wsqI#t=12m00s http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/03/23/activating-windows-8-contracts-in-your-app.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/03/23/act...
  - Zaim3 14y ago
    Win8 contracts seem very similar to Android's "Intent" functionality.
- tagx 14y ago
  We currently do that with http://filepicker.io/ http://filepicker.io/ across multiple cloud providers (only Dropbox and Facebook for now though) We currently only support opening and saving back files but we plan to add save-as support in the next few days
Juha 14y ago
I remember some Googlers talking about web intents last year which sounds a bit similar concept, but I guess this is something separate form that one. They were writing about it in context of Chrome: http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/connecting-web-apps-with-web-intents.html http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/connecting-web-apps-with-we...
rayhano 14y ago
BUT will the experience be seamless and actually replicate a proper file system, OR the current experience of having files on the web (Box, DropBox, SkyDrive) and not being able to attach/read/edit files. Currently you need native integration with these online services in iOS. When will they actually be web based file systems, universally accessible via API?
- replax 14y ago
  I am sorry, but skydrive has basically ms office build in. you can easily create/edit files. although it is obviously not the complete office suite, it is definitely very decent.
  - rayhano 14y ago
    Sure, and I love that SkyDrive is built into office... but accessing those files on the go, or with any other programme is a nightmare. What do I do with my other files? Spread them across different services? IF Office comes to iOS, THAT will be a game-changer. And I don't mean the lame Windows Phone 7 implementation. I would EVEN be happy with Office from Windows 3.1!
teraflop 14y ago
It's kind of disingenuous for them to call it an "open platform" when the only way to get API access is to distribute your app through the Chrome Web Store. What if I want to build something that works on multiple browsers? Am I just out of luck?
- jwmerrill 14y ago
  You actually can get access to these apps in other browsers through the Chrome Web Store. Try adding any of the Drive enabled apps. The experience is a little odd right now, but it works.
  - el_presidente 14y ago
    I get a big scary message telling me that most apps won't work without Chrome.
    - sirclueless 14y ago
      But the important thing is that there's no reason they can't. Google's release partners understandably target the browser that is used by Google fans, since they will be the early adopters. So long as this is a temporary situation, which I think it is, I wouldn't be worried.
wdr1 14y ago
Web intents! http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/connecting-web-apps-with-web-intents.html http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/connecting-web-apps-with-we...
coliveira 14y ago
> I think it's a brilliant move that shows Google thinking ahead to me this looks just as a reaction to Apple's cloud offering, which already integrates all data for apps running in iOS.
_k 14y ago
Drive competes with lots of SAAS companies!!
ramanujan 14y ago
For anyone wondering when this will come out for Apps: A Google Apps version of Google Drive will arrive for Google Apps admins on the rapid-release track "over the next few weeks," Google said; it'll also include 5GB free but monthly prices beyond that will be somewhat more expensive, for example $4 a month for 20GB or $89 per month for 1TB.) http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57419024-93/google-drive-its-slick-integrated...and-not-exactly-free/ When GDrive for Apps launches, it will enable a new sort of workflow, where a user can open specified file types in GDrive with internal webapps behind a VPN. If combined with the existing Google Docs API, this could be the start of a whole new class of business process apps. Interesting.
- marcloney 14y ago
  "Starting today, Google Apps administrators will see new controls for Drive in the control panel," a Google spokeswoman said. "Users at organizations on the Rapid Release track will be able to opt-in to Drive at drive.google.com/start." http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403464,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403464,00.asp
felixfurtak 14y ago
'...send faxes' - how quaint!
- Jare 14y ago
  Hahah yeah, that grabbed my attention too. Last month I registered a company as an iOS developer, and there was a lot of faxing to Apple involved. It took me a while to find a working machine in the building, and figure out how to send these things...
est 14y ago
Image Google Data Liberation is as simple as copy a folder out of Google Drive.

daenz 14y ago

> Basically, you register your app against certain mime types, and then when users install your app into Chrome, they can now open those file types directly from Drive using your app, seamlessly. It took a minute for it to hit me how brilliant that is. I'm really interested if webgl developers will do anything interesting with this.

knes 14y ago

I'm really looking forward to see this because the few apps that used Dropbox for this where brilliant, for example CineXplayer on iOS to store videos.

primigenus 14y ago

Some more thoughts on where this could go in the future: This whole thing is great for Chrome OS and Chromebooks. Right now, using a Chromebook is an experience that comes with a lot of sacrifice. You can't really do much with a lot of the files that you're used to using on Windows. You're locked to a browser UI that limits your flexibility. But with the upcoming new Aura UI and Google Drive, suddenly you've now got an experience very similar to Windows. You have a desktop that you can put apps on, and you can open arbitrary files using any app that supports it and is available in the store. Now the distance between Windows and Chrome OS is suddenly very small relative to how large it was last year. This makes me very excited to find out what Google plans to talk about at Google I/O. I wouldn't be surprised if they introduced a new Chromebook model built around the coming together of the new UI and Drive.

magicalist 14y ago

Interesting. I didn't see any reference to them in a quick scan, but it would be great if this worked with Web Intents as well.

amirmc 14y ago

"You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+" And this reminded me how much stuff I already have sitting in Google. A minor glitch last week meant I couldn't access my webmail (though I primarily use IMAP), which made me start thinking about this. I'm really pleased to see Drive come out but at the moment I feel reluctant to put too much stuff into it because I become even more dependent on the big G (and I'm actually surprised I feel this way and it's only a recent thing). Perhaps this feeling will fade but I'm not sure. Having an OS on my machine is great since the maker (MS/Apple) can't simply turn it off. Having Google become my "cloud OS" makes me nervous.

magicalist 14y ago
Well it's a good thing a major point of the product is the local copy :)
- amirmc 14y ago
  Yes, but that's not really what concerns me. It's that my workflow runs through those services. To clarify, email (basically your identity online), calendars, device syncing, now file-sharing can be run through Google (and I'm sure a whole lot of other things too). If these were to disappear* I'd basically be left with a nice shiny box, where I could 'work' but in a much more limited way. It would feel like being on a digital desert island (e.g. I do this now by working in places that don't have wireless and letting things 'sync' when I'm back online). I guess I'm just wondering how few companies are in a position to offer services like these, resulting in Google getting all my stuff. It's not bad per se but it is making me wonder what my options really are. (edits for clarity) *I'm referring to the odd story of people getting locked out of google accounts. I know it's rare.
  - Jebus 14y ago
    You can have some degree of peace of mind by using your own domain (it's very easy to set up in gmail). This way, if google ever decides to f*ck you, at least you can set up your own mail server (better than having your life ruined, depending on how important your email address is for you) and move on.

vibrunazo 14y ago

Does any of the cloud competitors already offer a similar api that would let my app users use their infra instead of mine? Or associate my app into their ui? Or is this a novel from google?

NZ_Matt 14y ago
Windows 8 and Skydrive has a similar concept built into it called contracts. Developers can integrate their app to work with Windows 8's UI. For example you can search your Flikr or Facebook directly in the OS in the same way that you search the file system. Here's a video demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hesj1I_wsqI#t=12m00s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hesj1I_wsqI#t=12m00s http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/03/23/activating-windows-8-contracts-in-your-app.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/03/23/act...
- Zaim3 14y ago
  Win8 contracts seem very similar to Android's "Intent" functionality.
tagx 14y ago
We currently do that with http://filepicker.io/ http://filepicker.io/ across multiple cloud providers (only Dropbox and Facebook for now though) We currently only support opening and saving back files but we plan to add save-as support in the next few days

Juha 14y ago

I remember some Googlers talking about web intents last year which sounds a bit similar concept, but I guess this is something separate form that one. They were writing about it in context of Chrome: http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/connecting-web-apps-with-web-intents.html http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/connecting-web-apps-with-we...

rayhano 14y ago

BUT will the experience be seamless and actually replicate a proper file system, OR the current experience of having files on the web (Box, DropBox, SkyDrive) and not being able to attach/read/edit files. Currently you need native integration with these online services in iOS. When will they actually be web based file systems, universally accessible via API?

replax 14y ago
I am sorry, but skydrive has basically ms office build in. you can easily create/edit files. although it is obviously not the complete office suite, it is definitely very decent.
- rayhano 14y ago
  Sure, and I love that SkyDrive is built into office... but accessing those files on the go, or with any other programme is a nightmare. What do I do with my other files? Spread them across different services? IF Office comes to iOS, THAT will be a game-changer. And I don't mean the lame Windows Phone 7 implementation. I would EVEN be happy with Office from Windows 3.1!

teraflop 14y ago

It's kind of disingenuous for them to call it an "open platform" when the only way to get API access is to distribute your app through the Chrome Web Store. What if I want to build something that works on multiple browsers? Am I just out of luck?

jwmerrill 14y ago
You actually can get access to these apps in other browsers through the Chrome Web Store. Try adding any of the Drive enabled apps. The experience is a little odd right now, but it works.
- el_presidente 14y ago
  I get a big scary message telling me that most apps won't work without Chrome.
  - sirclueless 14y ago
    But the important thing is that there's no reason they can't. Google's release partners understandably target the browser that is used by Google fans, since they will be the early adopters. So long as this is a temporary situation, which I think it is, I wouldn't be worried.

wdr1 14y ago

Web intents! http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/connecting-web-apps-with-web-intents.html http://blog.chromium.org/2011/08/connecting-web-apps-with-we...

coliveira 14y ago

> I think it's a brilliant move that shows Google thinking ahead to me this looks just as a reaction to Apple's cloud offering, which already integrates all data for apps running in iOS.

_k 14y ago

Drive competes with lots of SAAS companies!!

ramanujan 14y ago

For anyone wondering when this will come out for Apps: A Google Apps version of Google Drive will arrive for Google Apps admins on the rapid-release track "over the next few weeks," Google said; it'll also include 5GB free but monthly prices beyond that will be somewhat more expensive, for example $4 a month for 20GB or $89 per month for 1TB.) http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57419024-93/google-drive-its-slick-integrated...and-not-exactly-free/ When GDrive for Apps launches, it will enable a new sort of workflow, where a user can open specified file types in GDrive with internal webapps behind a VPN. If combined with the existing Google Docs API, this could be the start of a whole new class of business process apps. Interesting.

marcloney 14y ago
"Starting today, Google Apps administrators will see new controls for Drive in the control panel," a Google spokeswoman said. "Users at organizations on the Rapid Release track will be able to opt-in to Drive at drive.google.com/start." http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403464,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403464,00.asp

felixfurtak 14y ago

'...send faxes' - how quaint!

Jare 14y ago
Hahah yeah, that grabbed my attention too. Last month I registered a company as an iOS developer, and there was a lot of faxing to Apple involved. It took me a while to find a working machine in the building, and figure out how to send these things...

est 14y ago

Image Google Data Liberation is as simple as copy a folder out of Google Drive.