Google Drive. It’s a great idea. More free cloud storage, linked to my Google account, integration in stuff, ace. But I’ve had an issue getting started with it.
Drive essentially, evolved from Docs. And herein lies the problem. I never treated Google Docs as I would a folder.
My file organisation is poor anyway, but on Docs, well, it was never an issue. A good dumping ground for todo lists. Collaboration. Moving stuff between PCs. And as any GDoc you opened on the internet ever got added to your list, I didn’t feel like it was something to really keep clean like you do a folder. You’d have recent stuff up top and search for everything else, because that’s Google.
So shifting from one to the other just doesn’t sit well with me. They were treated differently. And I think there was a good chance for Google to rethink cloud storage a bit, but they went kind of simple.
And I understand that they may want me to deal with photos through G+, and music through Google Music, but in their integration goal – why isn’t their an automatic folder where I can access the jpgs and MP3s? My phone automatically syncs my photos to Dropbox – and I like having access to the jpgs. It also syncs them to my G+ account, but I have to download them OUT of that if I want the actual file.
I’ve got 26gb on Dropbox so moving off that for 5gb is unlikely, but making it easier to back things up and move ‘em between devices is good. So Gdrive has some work to do. But I hope over time they kick in to gear. If G+ is part of their efforts to bring things together, let’s see that happen with my files.