
Google Drive - Braasch
https://drive.google.com/start
======
zavulon
With Google's legendary customer service, it's only a matter of time until
someone gets their account locked, loses all their files and can't get them
from Google because there's no way to speak an actual person.

~~~
VikingCoder
Isn't the whole point of this to _synch_ your files to your local computer?

~~~
zavulon
The point is to sync so if your local computer fails you can retrieve them. A
situation could occur where your hard drive fails AND you're locked out of
your Google Drive account.

~~~
VikingCoder
Commandment: Make backups.

If you violate this commandment, you will eventually lose your data.

Commandment: Test your backups.

If you violate this commandment, you will discover that you weren't ACTUALLY
making backups.

~~~
zavulon
Yes, those are nice commandments. But most Google users aren't nearly tech
savvy to follow them.

~~~
VikingCoder
The existence of this new product does not make users more or less tech savvy.

If a user goes from 1 copy (hard drive), to 2 copies, then it's a net gain for
their backups.

If a user goes from 2 copies (hard drive, some backup system), to 2 copies
(hard drive, Google drive), then yes, arguably, it's a net loss for their
backups, because they can simultaneously have a HD failure and get locked out
of their Google account.

But arguably, they could live in Joplin, MO and both of their current backups
could be toast.

Best to have three - hard drive, backup drive in a safety deposit box, and
Google Drive if you like the convenience and access and cost, and don't mind
the privacy implications.

I don't mind the privacy implications. Google doing something evil with user's
data would be absolute suicide for them.

~~~
gbog
The lock out thing is exaggerated. Having a Google backup is much safer than
local manual backup for almost everyone.

~~~
VikingCoder
I agree completely.

If you also use two-factor authentication, I daresay that you are in the 99th
percentile, or higher.

------
rkudeshi
Is it just me or is this landing page pretty terribly designed (other than the
video)?

If I didn't already know what the product is, I would have no idea what I'm
looking at. Is it a cyberlocker? Is it a Dropbox clone? Is it a social file
editor?

Heck, the landing page could almost just be describing the previous Google
Docs functionality.

The most innovative features, OCR and image recognition, are buried away with
almost no description of just how useful they might be (privacy issues aside).
The file revisions feature is sorely lacking in detail.

Also, the amount of white space feels excessive. Was a second page for
features even necessary or couldn't that have just all been on the main page?

I'm sure the product is great and all, but this page is completely useless to
send to less technical friends or family members.

 _Edit: If you want to compare it to Google's other downloadable software
landing pages:_

<http://google.com/chrome>

<http://google.com/earth>

<http://google.com/toolbar>

<http://google.com/quicksearchbox>

<http://picasa.google.com>

<http://sketchup.google.com>

~~~
huggyface
The landing page seems perfectly fine to me, and adequately describes the
functionality of the service.

------
trustfundbaby
I'm curious to know how many people like this trend of having to watch a video
when you get to a landing page. Its showing up in more and more places, and I
personally dislike it (I don't want to load a video and watch a clip, if I can
quickly scan text and images and figure out if I should continue), but I
wanted to know what other people thought.

~~~
jwr
I rarely watch the videos. Life is too short. If I can learn about the
service/product by reading, that's fine, if not — I'll just abandon the page.
If the service/product is any good, it will come back to me sooner or later
via friends' recommendations.

~~~
gbog
Same here, rarely watch videos, but not because life is too short, because
video are very intrusive. I need to put headphones, it may download slowly, I
have to focus on somebody talking to me, often with a very weird accent, in a
language that is not my mother tongue. Moreover I am in China and may have to
fire my VPN, switch on the proxy, all this because some guys decided videos
were more than text.

------
ozataman
The best thing about this is that it will _finally_ force Dropbox to offer
_more_ storage at a _cheaper_ price point. $200 bucks for 100GB of personal
storage per year? I've long thought it's ridiculously high for mass adoption
and so many more would be using it if the price was a bit more reasonable.

For me:

1\. I need much more space than 100GB - I'd ideally like a TB+ on the cloud.

2\. The price has to be more acceptable. Say the cost of a TB hard drive on an
annual basis. I'm not even going to talk about the likely $1000+ bill for a TB
of space at the current price point.

3\. I have to admit that Dropbox is pretty cool when it comes to a smooth,
painless experience.

~~~
soupboy
I get the feeling that this is also going to force Amazon to lower their S3
prices. To store 100GB on S3's standard storage costs around $12/month right
now [<http://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/>]. Even if Dropbox were getting the
best price on that page, it would still cost them $3.7/month to store 100GB.

~~~
encoderer
AWS prices are negotiable. They're certainly getting a better price than
what's on that page.

------
dgurney
A key differentiator here vs. Dropbox that I think people are overlooking is
the fact that you can actually edit your files and collaborate easily. The
transition to cloud-based apps is underway, and Dropbox -- in this respect --
is about to be stuck in the past.

~~~
dkrich
I disagree and I have no affiliation with Dropbox or have any vested interest
in their success.

I just tend to think that the optimal cloud solution is as close to invisible
as possible while letting people use whichever software tools they need. I
don't really see any single entity owning the software and the storage because
no single entity can own the collaboration tools. I view collaboration and
syncing as two distinct business lines without a whole lot of interdependence.
Personally I use Google docs once in a blue moon, and even when I do, I don't
see how Google Drive makes that process any easier.

It may be that I just don't understand the product, but I don't think this
will be any more successful than its competitors except for the fact that,
when compared to Dropbox, it is substantially cheaper. But then again, Dropbox
may be able to parter with Amazon to keep Google out of the space as much as
possible and keep costs down.

~~~
rkudeshi
I think you just nailed something exactly on the head that I've had a hard
time describing to people.

For me, the fundamental problem with a service like Google Docs is that it is
the ONLY way I can edit a document.

Whereas on my computer, I can open a .doc file (synced with Dropbox) in Word,
TextEdit, OpenOffice, NeoOffice, or just about any other document editor.
Doubly so for more platform-agnostic files (e.g. txt, jpg, pdf, etc).

(This is also why, unlike Steve Jobs, I hope files and the file system never
die.)

~~~
tomkarlo
You can download, edit and upload Google docs in a range of formats, including
Word, ODT, RTF, etc.

The biggest problem with the file-based route is when you have multiple people
working on one file. You can't work on it at the same time (or you have a
merge problem.) You have to sidechannel quite a bit about which version is the
current "master". All kinds of issues that are solved by using a non-file-
centric document.

~~~
dkrich
Right, but if you are always using the default app for each (which I would
have to believe the vast majority of people are), there isn't much added value
to being able to edit files in Google Docs. As long as the file itself is
being maintained in a central location, I don't believe that there is a whole
lot of value in Google productivity software.

Syncing solutions should not dictate which software you use. One environment
should be completely agnostic of others and only be tied together by file
formats. So my original point was that I don't see the value add in Google
Drive overtaking Dropbox just because it has accompanying productivity
software. I think the software has to stand on its own, which I do not believe
it can do.

~~~
tomkarlo
I agree, but I don't think folks are saying it's going to overtake Dropbox
_because_ of the accompanying productivity software so much as the integration
of that and the syncing of normal files.

Easier to explain via my own example: I have Dropbox, and I'm also a fairly
heavy docs user. Now that's there's Drive, it's a no-brainer to just take all
my files out of Dropbox and drop them into Drive so when I'm looking for
something like a letter from last year, I only have to search one web site /
app and it's got everything from docs to PDF scans. There's no comparable way
of going the other direction (moving all my files to Dropbox) without losing a
ton of functionality. Word is good, but it's really primitive compared to Doc
at this point when it comes to collaborative work and access on my phone,
tablet, etc.

It's also worth noting that in the case of Google Docs, Drive isn't really a
syncing solution (unless you're using Docs in offline mode) since there's no
files to sync. It's just a way to access your docs.

------
ceejayoz
The Google Docs integration is disappointing. Just JSON files that open up
Google Docs in your browser, nothing useful to point Time Machine or some sort
of backup script at.

~~~
ja27
I was disappointed too. It's a glorified bookmark manager. I'd have thought it
would at least give me csv and rtf locally or an XML format.

~~~
peedy
However it is now easier to move your files in appropriate collections and
remove the unwanted files compared to the webinterface.

------
twog
Google & Apple make outstanding marketing videos. They are routinely some of
the best I see in any industry, and the clear leaders in the tech industry.

The only "startup" I have seen that rivals their quality of marketing videos
is Square. Does anyone know how much producing video like this costs?

~~~
JoblessWonder
The pure production costs (Animator + Voice Over) aren't going to be high.
Anywhere from $1k to $5k depending on how much you outsource and how far away
you outsource it.

The ability of a marketing department/agency to distill the product, it's
benefits, how it relates to the brand and why you need it is something you
can't really quantify. If you watch Mad Men think of the effort that goes into
a pitch meeting. That is what you pay for. And that can cost a lot.

------
yalogin
The biggest things here are the OCR, image recognition and (hence deeper)
search feature for your files. It would be really tough for Dropbox or any
other competitor to match these. The Google drive also seems to be available
on all platforms so looks like a very good option.

~~~
timwiseman
"The Google drive also seems to be available on all platforms"

Not yet. There is no broad based Linux support yet (it supports Android, which
is technically Linux, but no Linux Desktop distro is supported) and iOS
support is still in the works.

------
jawngee
So now they have your social network, your search history, your email ... and
now your files? I can't see how that could possibly go wrong.

~~~
dmix
Also notably, your wallet.

~~~
tedsuo
Don't forget your phone, and eventually, your car!!! I give them points for
being ambitious.

------
glesica
Anyone see any word on a Linux client? "PC and Mac" is all I can find, but
"PC" usually translates to "Windows"...

------
philp
Has anybody tried syncing extisting folders via symlinks? Using Dropbox this
is how I prefer to keep track of folders outside of the actually Dropbox
folder. Google Drive just seems to ignore them.

Not being able to include other folders would pretty much be a deal-breaker
for me :( Any ideas?

~~~
rkudeshi
If true, that would be a huge omission.

I've symlinked my ~/Documents folder into my Dropbox folder and now I rarely
manually put anything into ~/Dropbox.

I wonder if it's because they know people use Dropbox this way, but they want
you to put your documents into Google Docs directly?

------
ciupicri

        You need to upgrade your Adobe Flash Player to watch this video.
        Download it from Adobe.
    

It makes me wonder how serious is Google about WebM.

~~~
daave
<http://www.youtube.com/html5>

The YouTube HTML5 player is still in trial mode, just not stable enough to use
on the homepage of a major product launch.

All in good time, there are definitely people at Google working on it :-)

~~~
iscrewyou
If you are one of them, let Page and his team(that would include you) know
that they are doing a good job with the new direction the company is going
towards.

------
andrewhillman
Talk about cheap storage. :)

20 GB ($5.00 USD per year) 80 GB ($20.00 USD per year) 200 GB ($50.00 USD per
year) 400 GB ($100.00 USD per year) 1 TB ($256.00 USD per year)

~~~
zgohr
Where are you seeing this? I see 25GB for $2.49 USD per month, 100GB for $4.99
USD per month, 1TB for $49.99 USD per month (and a few others) here:
<https://www.google.com/settings/storage/?hl=en>

~~~
mladenkovacevic
I just bought 80GB a few minutes before the new pricing page went up. When I
go back to my Accounts page and click on Storage-More Details I see the new
pricing like you, but under my 80GB at $20/year I see the following: "* Your
current plan is no longer offered.Learn more"

There is nothing yet under the Learn More link, but it says that my next
charge will occur next year. I hope that means old storage buyers are being
grandfathered in.

Thinking about it some more, I should've gotten 200GB for $50.

~~~
iscrewyou
They are. I've had the 80GB storage for a few months and I got to keep it.

------
tambourine_man
It must be crazy in the plex today. My Gmail is down, can't download canary,
and this site is crazy slow to load.

------
shuzchen
I like it. Well, I can't use it currently (my drive "isn't ready yet") but
I've wanted a more feature-ful Dropbox[1]. With Google killing off tons of
projects I love (latest being Picasa for linux, sad face) it's nice to see
they're adding cool things in the meantime.

[1] That is, Dropbox's philosophy is to create something dead simple that an
idiot can use, whereas I suspect Google's product will be laden with options
and knobs. I don't knock on Dropbox - I'm constantly recommending it to people
that aren't tech-savvy (and it's one of the few things they understand and
start using quickly), but I personally like those knobs and levers. Am I the
only one here that doesn't think they're direct competition with each other?
They're in the same space and all but I think they're meant for different
niches.

~~~
tiziano88
picasa for linux was just a bundle of wine and picasa for windows, you can
easily replicate this setup yourself.

------
CountSessine
The icon looks a bit like a recycling symbol. This is not a good metaphor for
cloud storage.

And no linux client.

~~~
untouchable
No linux client turned me off of full adoption (especially when dropbox does
support linux)

~~~
lomegor
While Dropbox does support Linux, I could only get the client to work on the
Ubuntu distro. Not saying that Google Drive is better (they don't even have a
client), but that Dropbox Linux support is not so good.

~~~
ajross
I'm running it just peachy right now on Fedora 16 x86_64. Add a repo, install
the package, and it bootstraps itself. It's quite clean.

------
nextstep
Apparently Google Drive isn't _everywhere_ I want to be; it's not "ready for
my account" yet. Is it really that hard for Google to make this available for
everyone who wants it right away? How many people are trying to do this on
opening day?

------
pgambling
"Your Google Drive is not ready yet" :(

~~~
NZ_Matt
I'm also seeing this. Is it not available internationally yet or are they just
rolling it out slowly?

~~~
pgambling
I'm in Houston, TX. My guess is a slow roll out, probably over a day or so.

------
nubela
No Linux support? sad face.

~~~
skeletonjelly
Probably supports Linux server side :P

------
sjaakkkkk
Anybody an idea whether it can hurt to put my Dropbox folder in the GDrive
folder? That way I'd have a double backup for files in my Dropbox folder.

------
ramblerman
I wonder what this will mean for dropbox. I certainly like the micro-like
pricing starting at 2.50 a month.

As a statisfied dropbox user, with only ~200mb used, I don't need to pay for
the service. Yet I recently wanted to show my support by taking their lowest
possible plan. (I thought this would put me back 15-30 dollars a year).

Yet the lowest thing they offer is 9.99 a month. I found that suprising

------
plg
2MB file size limit???

~~~
singingwolfboy
Looks like the file cap is actually 4MiB, based on my testing. Still way too
small.

------
inglondon
When running the Google Drive OSX application the CPU goes into overdrive
while syncing my local files to the Google servers and pushes the CPU
temperature to around 100° Celsius. Is anyone else experiencing the same
issues?

------
thedangler
I tried it quickly. And couple things I have grip with. 1\. I Synced my
folders and a couple files showed up. I deleted the files I didn't want in my
google drive on the computer, and they were removed from google drive.

2\. I disconnected, And when I tried to sync back up it wanted my Google drive
folder to be empty. It wanted to re-sync everything from the online Drive
account. It wouldn't pick up where it left off.

I stopped using it right away.

That was my experience. I'm sure they will fix it. Unless I'm using it wrong.

------
Zhenya
I wish I could select on android which folder I wanted Synced. Right now I had
to manually share the photo folder from my gallery. (I dont want to use
google+ photos)

~~~
Zhenya
I am going to try and build this with Drive API

<https://developers.google.com/drive/get_started>

------
alastair
It seems along with this announcement google have revised their storage
pricing. On the old scheme I could get 20GB for $5/year, now 25GB is ~$30/year
(600% increase) -

[http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ...](http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=39567&p=butter_old_storage)

------
adrianp
It's funny that in the old Google Docs I was able to upload documents with no
issues in any browser/OS, but it seems that in Drive I cannot do it using
Opera on Linux (but I can using Chrome). Also, the way in which shared
documents have been handled in the transition is just plain stupid.

~~~
Kudos
I never find it strange when Opera doesn't work. It's not Opera's fault, web
developers generally don't care about it.

------
aganek
The next big stage of cloud storage is integration. Integration into 3rd party
apps. Integration deep into devices (iCloud for iOS and Google Drive for
Android). This was a "must" for Google for Android to remain relevant.

------
conradev
The more I use it, the more I see it as a Dropbox clone. Not just the exact
same feature-wise, but also technology-wise..

Google Drive's Mac client is written in Python, just like Dropbox's, for
example.

------
jarsj
It's strange that the top comments here are blasting Google for things we
couldn't care less about.

I think it's awesome. Especially the search integration and ability to build
apps. Dropbox is dead.

------
dpres
How is Google Drive different from the way Google Docs is meant to be used?
Seems like Google Drive is Google Docs with a new name and an intro video.

------
twodayslate
I still want to be able to sync any folder - not just a gDrive or a dropbox
folder.

------
bretthellman
It seems to be disabled for google apps?

~~~
tree_of_item
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3884918>

------
diminish
microsoft, canonical, apple and now google; won't any one of the bigger tech
players buy dropbox instead of developing something new?

~~~
Duff
The asking price is probably too insane. If Instagram is a $1B company, than
what is Dropbox?

~~~
rscale
Dropbox raised $250m at a (rumored) $4b valuation not long ago.

------
no-espam
Confusing. It says upgrade to 25GB for less than $2.50/month then it says 20GB
for $5.00/year. You would think with Google's budget they would have some
person read the front page and the pricing page.

------
douglee650
at first i was like, only 5gb free, what happened to massive leapfrogs goog.
then i was like 100gb for 4.99/month F yeah america.

------
sirwanqutbi
Why is Google immune to Anti-competition laws?

~~~
tjmc
Anti-competition laws (in the US at least) only take effect where a company 1.
has a monopoly or near-monopoly in a market _and_ then 2. abuses that position
to keep out or disadvantage competitors.

The laws don't apply to Google here because there's significant competition
(SkyDrive, iCloud, Dropbox and others) so no monopoly. And Google is also fine
in markets like search where they are the dominant player unless they start
doing dumb things like penalising companies for advertising on other search
engines.

