
Fabled Google Drive Won't Be Another Dropbox - eror932
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/fabled_google_drive_wont_be_another_dropbox.php#.TzQZge61PKw.hackernews
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Hominem
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.

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obtino
> 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...

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

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lonnierenda
I think a lot of people are already using Google Docs as the mythical "G
Drive." I use it for that purpose and store all my photos, videos, docs, etc.
up there. In fact, it will even stream your videos like youtube (I cannot
speak to audio as I am not a big music person).

My complaint is not that is cannot store anything you want, but that it is not
integrated with their own products. If I am storing something, like a photo,
in Google Docs, I should be able to publish it to Picasa or Google+, or even
attach it to an email (either from the email or through Google Docs). Same
with video, except this time youtube instead of Picasa.

Instead, I have to download it first and then upload it to the appropriate
app.

I don't use DropBox, but I have heard it is great. But, I do use a product:
<https://www.insynchq.com/> to back up and sync my Google Docs locally. I
don't know if that is the same.

~~~
bostonvaulter2
You can use Google Music for streaming audio files but I don't think it's
integrated into Google Docs, maybe that's part of what Google Drive will do?

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angdis
Google drive will certainly NOT be a failure if they match the user experience
of dropbox at a price that is better. Dropbox, however, should have a plan to
avoid being "mapquested" by google if they want to stay relevant.

What I don't understand is why there aren't more solutions like the old
jungledisk where you supply your amazon s3 keys and get a virtual drive that
acts as an interface to s3.

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toomuchtodo
Because the JungleDisk solution is clunky. You're either going to use Dropbox
if you're a casual user or use a Linux filesystem in user space to interface
to S3. JungleDisk is the purgatory no one wants to be in.

Note: I've used JungleDisk; my business partner still uses JungleDisk and
complains about its shortcomings; I tell him to switch to Dropbox.

~~~
angdis
I've used jungledisk for a long time and felt they've really squandered a
great opportunity (or maybe getting acquired by rackspace _was_ the
opportunity in the first place).

I agree the jungledisk UX could be better, but the idea was good: run an
service on the user PC that works with s3 and behaves like a hard-drive and
make the user pay amazon directly for the storage and bandwidth "a-la carte."
There really isn't a need for servers, why not just s3 buckets + the user
machines?

I am surprised there aren't opensource solutions that just take s3 keys and
make a virtual drive. Or are there?

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toomuchtodo
There are solutions such that you describe, but they're FUSE filesystems for
Linux, not full blown GUIs for OS X and Windows.

JungleDisk uses the server functionality for maintaing state.

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robk
InSync[1] is a pretty close experience right now to using Google Docs as a
Dropbox-like product. Surely Google will launch a desktop connector like
InSync or otherwise buy them.

[1] www.insynchq.com

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jsz0
Google really doesn't get that lots of people want a separation between their
public and private spaces. I wouldn't be comfortable putting my files on
anything connected to Google+ and I would be more than a little creeped out to
see my files appear in a Google Search. Even it's 100% secure it's just not a
good idea to blur the lines. I think part of the success of Dropbox is it
becomes an extension of your private space in the form of an Explorer or
Finder window.

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sgentle
Heh, does anyone remember the outcry when Google Desktop turned up and, if you
installed it, your search results started including local files?

If this happens the way the author predicts, then perhaps the solution wasn't
to dial back the slightly uncomfortable privacy implications, but rather just
to turn the whole thing up to eleven and store all your files.

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martincmartin
So ... it'll be a lot like Amazon Cloud Drive then? And Microsoft's SkyDrive?

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sinkercat
No, Amazon Cloud Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive do not have shell integration.
You need to upload using a browser.

Hopefully, Google Drive will be similar to Dropbox wherein, you will have a
G-Drive directory in your hard disk. Microsoft has a similar product too - it
is called Live Mesh.

~~~
JBiserkov
There IS Skydrive shell integration:

-you can easily mount a Skydrive folder and Office will recognize the file originated from Skydrive and show relevant information (e.g. other editing the file)

-Office 2010 has a 'Save to Web' function

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moe
And on a Mac? Linux?

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pyre
I'm unsure how this comment is helpful. The conversation goes like this:

    
    
      Person 1: Microsoft SkyDrive doesn't have shell
                support. It's browser-only.
      Person 2: Sure it has shell support, but it's
                Windows-only.
      Person 3: But it's not *CROSS-PLATFORM* shell
                support!
    

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman>

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wavephorm
Google Drive will fail because Google actually thinks everybody loves and
trusts them. People are getting smarter, and they're starting to understand
that the type of centralized cloud computing that Google is forcefully pushing
on its users is the exact kind of distasteful scenario that Orwell warned us
of.

People really do not want their entire digital experience curated, controlled,
and highly manipulated by a centralized, autonomous entity, with zero-human
interaction, and zero-support if something goes wrong.

The Google's free ice cream business model isn't going work forever.
Eventually decentralized, private cloud computing is going to come along and
make their entire business model obsolete.

~~~
yalogin
Is this a comment on the proposed Drive or Google as a whole?

If this is about the Drive feature itself then how is Dropbox different? They
have the data of all their users. In fact they know for a fact that its
valuable data since the user chose to pay to back it up.

The OP's link was a speculation just like Drive speculation itself.

Google might have problems as a company but that's not as relevant to the
success or failure of a Drive feature in my opinion. It all depends on the
experience and cost.

~~~
wavephorm
My comment explains why I think Drive will fail, because of the business model
of the company that is behind it. Google's advertising model necessitates evil
things to be done with the content their users upload. And my prediction is
users are going to start spitting up the free ice cream Google is serving.

~~~
Symmetry
Given your stated beliefs, wouldn't you also expect Gmail, the Google search
engine, etc to be failing too? That doesn't seem to be the case.

~~~
wavephorm
...yet. I fully expect Gmail and Search to decline in popularity, and with it
Google's profitability and viability. Users are starting to revolt, and switch
to alternatives like DDG. I don't know of any good Gmail alternatives yet, but
the timing is really right for some startup to come along with a better email
solution.

Google may appear an unstoppable juggernaut, but they most certainly are not.
I think their business is very seriously threatened because of the type of
business model they've chosen.

