Google Drive: Dropbox Killer?
 

Google finally announced their cloud storage solution today and, at least based on the marketing materials, it looks pretty damn sweet. Basically, Dropbox features at half the price, plus all sorts of Google integration. It's going to be interesting to see how it all works out.

Blog post with the announcement:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/...es-really.html

Drive website:
http://drive.google.com

P.S. Arash - if you happen to find this thread one of these days, good luck! I can't imagine it's easy to suddenly having Google jump in as a direct competitor.

The only thing I don't like is after 5G you have to pay MONTHLY for the excess storage.

Heh, he's the first person I thought of when I read the thread title. Dude has got to be ballin now. Dropbox is a hit.

While true, that's how pretty much all of the cloud storage services work.

Also, it doesn't give you free beer and blowjobs. I mean WTF? What a rip off....

Here's a decent run-down via a reddit comment:

I haven't ever really used a cloud storage, but I guess it makes sense to do it that way. Just seems a bit too pricey and deters me from wanting to use one.

$2.50/mo for 25GB of guaranteed cloud storage accessible anywhere from any device? And that's "too pricey"? Seriously?

Are you an Ethiopian farmer or something?

Man, I've already got a shit-****ton of GBs on Dropbox from all the referrals I made. **** a Google Drive.

I could be.... I just hate having to pay monthly rates for anything. At some point it should just be yours.

EDIT: I understand it can be compared to netflix or even any of your monthly bills. But when I can go out and buy SD cards and be done paying why would I want to pay monthly?

The difference is that there's an ongoing cost (to the provider) for stuff like this. It would be one thing if they just sold you a chunk of hard drive space, but they still have to pay for the power for the drive, the bandwidth to and from the server, the development of the software to facilitate the process, etc. It's a service - not a product - and you can never "possess" a service.

Like I said, I do understand the reasoning for monthly charges; just not my cup of tea at the moment. Maybe you could educate me further. Does it offer anything that a standard SD card doesn't?

That's a neat idea... it would be like pay once forever hosting or something...

We're talking about $2.50/mo to have files accessible from anywhere on dedicated secure servers that you yourself never have to worry about from now until the end of human civilization. Less than 10 years ago, nobody except millionaires could have afforded something like that. This is really amazing technology available for less than a hamburger a month and you're just pooping all over it.

Do your SD cards automatically transfer data between your various devices? Can you send someone a link to a picture on your SD card? Do your SD cards automatically back themselves up with near infinite redundancy? Of course not.

It appears that you're looking at this just as a way to store data (and, therefore, increase your available storage space). That's not what you're paying for. You're paying for the convenience of 1) having your data available anytime, anywhere, and on any device and 2) having it all backed up instantly.

Infinite data retention guaranteed free of failure?

As one very simplistic example of what Dropbox can do, here's a gallery of pics from a recent skiing outing:

(link removed)

I didn't "upload" those anywhere. They're in a folder on my computer. They're also in a folder on my wife's laptop and our server at home, as well as Dropbox's servers. My whole house could burn down, and those would still be there. I can share the entire folder with a friend, and they can "save" files into that same folder from THEIR computer.

EDIT: I'm thinking twice about having a link out there with my full name and pictures of me on there, so sorry for removing the link. If anyone's actually curious, feel free to PM me for the link.

I don't even use 50% of the 2 gbs I have on my free Dropbox account right now.

That was not my intention and sorry if it came across that way. I just don't have a need for it. It is new to me so I don't know much about it. As DaFace just said, I was seeing it as a means to free up available space on my device.

I guess if I had a tablet, computer and other things where I would like to have immediate access to all of my files it would be well worth the cost to me. But since all I have is a Droid X-2 it is overkill to me.

Just depends on how you use it. Literally every document I have is on there, which includes every digital camera pic I've taken in the past decade. I'm using about 25GB at the moment.

I've literally never needed any type of Dropbox service.

:toast: dude. I was just being overdramatic and giving you a hard time....

As someone in IT, I can tell you that this kind of ease of access and free data retention is really an impressive feat of technology. My organization pays hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to provide this kind of access and storage on a much much much much smaller scale. It's vastly more complex than just a replacement for an SD card. You'd really be amazed at what this kind of cloud storage can do these days.

LMAO I was thinking to myself, "Did this guy invent the cloud?"

As I read I am starting to see it more of a 3rd party source to network all mobile and home devices while backing up all info to a secure location, which is pretty cool. Especially, the part about if you stop paying it isn't lost; you just need to pay to access it. If you lost everything stored on there I would be furious.

Actually if you stop paying you can still access it anytime without resuming payment. Read only means you can download the file at any time you just can't upload anymore after that.

I'm currently with Carbonite. $99 every 2 years for unlimited storage. So it's unlimited and automatic for about $4/month. Is Google Drive really that much better, I can still access my files on any PC, phone, tablet, etc. Could Google Drive be set up to be automatic like Carbonite?

Unless I've missed a change they've made in the last couple years, Carbonite is a great BACKUP system, but not a SYNCING solution. In other words, Carbonite will upload anything you want from your computer, and you can go and find any of those files (manually) by logging into their website and downloading them as you need them.

Dropbox (and drive) does all that, but where Carbonite is really meant to keep files backed up from one computer, Dropbox will keep a folder synced on MULTIPLE computers. In other words, if you save a file into your Dropbox folder on one computer, it will instantly (ignoring download times) show up in the Dropbox of all of the other computers you have linked up. You can also share folders between accounts if you wish. Finally, there are a variety of sharing options on Dropbox that allow you to give out links that can be clicked in a web browser to access files that are in your Dropbox folder on your computer, which is a nice side benefit.

So basically, if you're just looking for an online backup solution, Carbonite works fine. If you're looking for a way to share files between multiple computers (and people) easily while having a backup solution as a nice side benefit, Dropbox (or Drive) are awesome.

Well damn, I'm starting to feel more and more like Dewey Cox in this scene

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xW9AHQXh_RM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I like the sound of it and I'll definitely use it.

But selective syncing is a must and my dropbox referrals are paying off here.

Meh. I'm getting 50gb storage free on dropbox.

Shit tons of referrals?

Pretty decent review
http://m.lifehacker.com/5904731/desk...urce=pulsenews

Nope. HP Touchpad owner. :)

Me too, but we have BOX.net not dropbox... but basically the same.

They all look the same to me.

I installed and setup google drive today - just to let you guys know, there is a selective sync option (someone originally said it didn't have the functionality - it does).

Got Drive enabled today too. Cool so far....

Yup, they're moving pretty quickly on the invites it looks like - both me and a coworker got access today.

My initial impressions are that it's basically Dropbox at a lower price with better web features and poorer local features (i.e., right-click features). I'll be sticking with Dropbox for now, but I'll be anxiously watching the improvements between the two.

Can I store my porn on there?

Don't see why not. Hell, it'll even turn it into a web-browsable format. :)

Confirmed!! :thumb:

Dropbox is bumping their plans up today in response:

http://blog.dropbox.com/index.php/ne...box-pro-plans/

$10 = 100gb
$20 = 200gb

Interesting. My employer is actually in the process of switching from Dropbox to Drive.

hey guys! We're awesome because we went from 4 times the price to just double the price! <high five>

Eh, DB's overall platform is still far more refined IMO. I gave Drive a try for a couple weeks, but ended up going back to Dropbox (price be damned). This makes it a little nicer, though.

For what it's worth, Dropbox just bumped limits up to 1TB for $9.99.

How well does it integrate with OS X?

It's not bad, but it syncs everything. I used it as offsite storage and ended up removing it from my desktop.

I haven't used it since getting my File Transporter.

$9.99 per month.

It works fine. It creates a Google Drive folder in your home folder. It can sync the entire folder, or subfolders of your choosing. You can designate what you want to share with others, and view what others have shared with you. I use it cross platform, and haven't ever had any issues with it.

We use Godaddy's Workspace program. It's cloud based storage and email all rolled into one. We've been using it for a few years now and have no complaints.

Drive may end up being an everything killer.

I'm not sure there's been a piece of technology that has changed my workflow like this since the computer itself came along.

Going paperless at work is a beautiful thing.