

Insynchq : A Google Docs-Loving Dropbox Rival - vidyesh
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/12/30/forget-dropbox-insync-is-your-google-docs-loving-alternative-and-its-free/

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nessus42
I second the recommendation of Insync. I use it on three Macs, and so far it
has worked flawlessly as far as I can tell. I haven't beat on it mercilessly,
but I did use it for all the course material for the two free Stanford classes
I took, along with the Octave code I wrote.

Re how they are going to make money: They used to charge $20 a year if you
wanted to sync more than the free 1GB that Google Docs gives you. This
apparently was very confusing for customers, so now they will sync any amount
for free and plan to offer some additional extra-cost features, but they
haven't announced these yet. So at the moment, Insync is completely free.

I've lobbied them to support opaque syncing of symbolic links and to have a
mechanism specifying files to ignore (a la .gitignore) as an extra-cost
feature, so that I can use Insync for syncing code that I am working on
between my work computer and my home computer. (I currently use Unison for
this purpose, but I find Unison to be something of a chore to use.) Whether
they will ultimately support these features, I don't know, but they _did_ show
some interest. At the moment, neither Dropbox nor Windows Live Mesh nor Insync
are no good for this purpose, as none of them support ignores and both Dropbox
and Insync treats symlinks transparently rather than opaquely. Live Mesh is a
bit better than Dropbox and Insync with regard to symlinks: it just ignores
them completely. This means that I could conceivably sync them out of band,
but since it doesn't support ignores, the issue is moot.

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nessus42
Boy, what did I say to offend people?

I provide useful feedback on some services that I am actually using for real
work, and I get downvoted?

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ThaddeusQuay2
I don't usually vote, but when I see that a useful comment has been downvoted,
I upvote, as I did just now. The reason I am pointing this out is because I
strongly suggest that the system be somehow changed so as not to alienate
people who create useful comments. Also, we should be able to buy and sell
points.

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nessus42
Thanks! Yeah, it's rather unsettling to spend some time to writing up my
experiences only to have my post end up in the negative numbers and all grayed
out for no apparent reason. I'm not sure what's up with that -- it makes you
feel like you're back on Slashdot. All's well that ends well, though. The post
is well into the positives now.

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sdizdar
Insynchq is cool... Nicely done. However it seems like Dropbx is still the
best client software which works well on all platforms.

Shameless plug: So if you want to sync in the cloud (Dropbox <-> GoogleDocs)
try <https://cloudhq.net> (Dropbox does excellent sync with your PC and then
cloudHQ ensure that GDoc is sync'd with Dropbox).

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davidpoarch
The competition looks stiff, but I'm rooting for them. Terence Pua, Insync's
co-founder, is a seasoned internet entrepreneur -- one of the guys behind
Friendster (Philippines) back in the day, before getting killed by Facebook.

I had the opportunity to join Insync's team back when I was living in Manila;
but I came across Payguard ( <http://www.younoodle.com/startups/payguard> )
and decided to try to revolutionize online payments instead.

~~~
dannyr
Dude, I looked you up & you're coconuter. I've been following your adventures
in the Philippines for a while. I didn't know you worked with Terence.

I met Terence here in the Bay Area and I had lunch with Terence when I was in
Manila last May.

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nkorth
This is cool, but what the cloud needs to truly work is a standard for
communicating between any two services. Optimally, I should be able to use any
Dropbox-type service with any web app, by setting "file opener" URLs. There
would be some authentication method between the servers, and the file would be
transferred over to the app for editing, and back to Dropbox when I press
"save".

Is this feasible?

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sdizdar
Yes. There seems to be a need to connect cloud services so that, for example,
service A and talk with service B without involving your PC into that
connection. Something like DCE/RCP or DCOM for public cloud.

BTW, we started doing this with the following Chrome extension which allows
you to edit Dropbox/Basecamp/Sugarsync files inside GoogleDocs:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/iobcbdgacfkninlcbp...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/iobcbdgacfkninlcbphihhdlkobkehia)

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demione
How are they monetizing? Google Docs doesn't give them money for referrals,
does it?

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gizzlon
Sounds like they're going to charge for premium features but not for storage:

 _"Everyone is stuck on the “more GBs as 100% of the value” model. We want to
change that. It should be about personalized features you want."_

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crdoconnor
Translation: very few people's stash of word and excel documents will ever
exceed 2GB.

~~~
patrickaljord
You can store any kind of files now on Google Docs.

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algorithms
Anyone know what happend to Google Drive? Was really looking forward to it...

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EdiX
It was killed by Google Docs:

[http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-google-docs-
kil...](http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-google-docs-killed-
gdrive.html)

short version: google engineers have fast wifi everywhere they go,
synchronizing to the hd looks pointless to them.

~~~
luckyisgood
Mashable would disagree: <http://mashable.com/2011/12/22/google-drive-
predictions/> \- and Google would be wise to follow. Google's arch enemies -
Amazon, Apple and Microsoft - all have their clouds to dance on.

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spindritf
I have been looking for a way to sync to (and from) Google Docs conveniently
for a while. Insynchq looks nice, unfortunately "Linux Coming Soon".

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clhodapp
In my opinion, it can't come soon enough. If this service gets significant
uptake, it should finally push Dropbox to lower their long-stagnant prices.

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st3fan
Does it do encryption? I would love a Dropbox with client side encryption. I
don't care about web access.

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xam
Perhaps this will encourage Dropbox to up the ante and release an official
sync with Google Docs. Please?

~~~
sdizdar
There is unofficial Google Docs <-> Dropbox sync:
<https://cloudHQ.net/dropbox> Please let me know what you think about it.

