Technology Google Drive

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#3
Why should I use this instead of Dropbox though? I get more there and I think it's more convenient to use. As a matter of fact it's almost perfect for me.
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#6
http://blog.gsmarena.com/cloud-stor...-dropbox-vs-sugarsync-vs-skydrive-vs-box-net/

According to this G Drive is still very limited compared to Dropbox. Limited security, non-expandable free storage and 10gig file limit (considering you get more than 5gb of storage).
Also I bet nobody even has a 2GB account at Dropbox - most people have much more (dropbox.com/free , challenges, referrals, betas etc.). For Dropbox you could get 5gig extra space for free just for testing the latest version of their Android app, + 1gig for dropbox.com/free, +16gig for referrals, +0,5gb for each contest etc. etc.
 

S O F I

Administrator
Staff member
#7
I only have 3.8 gigs for dropbox.

also, google drive didn't launch for everyone. they say it's not ready for me yet wtf.
 

Pittsey

Knock, Knock...
Staff member
#8
Google Drive is in it's infancy. Those limitations will change.

As for Drive VS Dropbox. I have no interest in either. I already store my photos on Picassa. Can upload all my music for free with no limits to Google Music. What else do I want to store in the cloud?
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#9
Most people use it to store all of their most important files in one place there. Files they might want to use anywhere. Programs, photos, documents, music and basically anything else in one place, available from anywhere. I use it instead of thumb drives. I also use that for sharing my files. Oh, and transferring files from my PC to my phone and the other way around. It's faster and more convenient. Especially Dropbox is super cool - it automatically transfers all pictures and videos taken with your phone, so they're already on your computer when you get back home.
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#12
First privacy issues:
As you might remember, Google recently introduced a unified ToS for all their services and products. This means that Drive gets automatically covered by the same terms that handle Maps and Gmail. Here’s the part that bothers many people, me included, in the Google’s Terms of Service.

Your Content in our Services: When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.

Did you read it carefully? I hope you did, because it states that whatever you upload to Google Drive, you grant Google the license to reproduce, modify, create derivative works, publicly display and distribute such content and even publish your photos, videos, code or what have you.

But it doesn’t stop there. Oh, no. Here’s what follows right after that paragraph.

The rights that you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing that you have added to Google Maps).

Since Google doesn’t have a separate ToS for each of its services, it automatically means that whatever you upload to your Google Drive stays there. Forever.

There’s also another problem. Read the first sentence from the first quote again. It says that you “give Google ((and those it works with) a worldwide license to…” do whatever, basically. Now, who is “those Google works with”? Why doesn’t the search giant go into a bit more detail about that?

It’s just sad, really. Not only are we giving Google the right to do anything they want with our files, but we also give the same benefits to their “partners”.

Luckily, though, it’s not the end of the world, and here’s why. Firstly, you retain full ownership of your stuff. Here’s an excerpt of the same ToS.

You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

This means if you take a great picture of the Eiffel Tower and upload it to Google Drive, Google can only retouch it a bit, print in on a very large canvas and put it wherever it wants. But at least it won’t claim it as its own.

Secondly, it’s only a big deal if you make it so. Why? Because as it turns out, Google and the rest of the cloud sharing services need to “modify, create derivative works, publicly display and distribute, reproduce”, and whatnot your files, because of the technical aspect of uploading and storing files in the computer cloud.

You see, the “Cloud” is actually a big, noisy and hopefully, not very steamy Data center, which houses a bunch of servers, where many industrial-grade hard drives buzz in a perfect harmony. There your files sit and wait for you. And in order for the service in question to host them, move them around across various data centers for backups, revisions and to generally do their work properly, they needs you to give them all the permissions you could ever imagine.

Harmless things like generating a web gallery with thumbnails out of your photo album, translating a Word document in a bunch of different languages and sharing files with friends could get Google, Dropbox and Microsoft sued if they don’t explicitly ask for those rights beforehand.
http://blog.gsmarena.com/reading-th...oft-and-dropbox-have-on-your-files-editorial/
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#14
That article says google is the devil and then says.... actually... no it isn't.
Yes, basically the guy points out the needs to be concerned and then justifies them, because people are evil and these are the means to protect the company from that evil.

Yeah, Drive is integrated with Google account and the way I see it is its biggest advantage, because most people on the internetz have one. So people might begin to use it because it is there already.
 

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#17
I have 12GB on my Dropbox of which I've only used 6.

So now I have another 5 on GDrive. Cool beans. I'll probably use it just for work stuff, everything else on Dropbox.

GDrive is WAY better than Dropbox for collaborative document editing, as it includes most of the Wave technology (the real time editing by multiple people, separate chat box etc). And the fact that you can open stuff in GDrive without having the software installed. For example you can open PDF's and PSD's even if you don't have Adobe Reader and Photoshop.
 

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#19
is it any different than google docs? I can't seem to tell.
Google Docs was web only. Google Drive is basically Google Docs + Dropbox - ie, you have a local folder on your hard drive that has 2-way sync with the web interface. There's more to it, but that's the main thing.
 

S O F I

Administrator
Staff member
#20
oh, i see. I don't see much use for a local folder. i'd prefer it to stay web only actually. I like to think I have docs on google docs and nowhere else.
 

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