Categories: Web

Google Drive launches, an evolution of Google Docs

Amid increasing speculation Google has today introduced Google Drive. Google Drive is a personal cloud storage service that offers Google account holders the ability to upload, share and access videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and more from just about anywhere and on just about any device.

As anticipated by our editor Piers Scott, Google Docs is built into Google Drive. In fact, Google Drive is as much an evolution of Google Docs than it is a new product. Drive brings the sharing and collaborative elements found in Google Docs to other media forms like images and videos.

Google Drive’s contents are searchable by keyword, file type and owner, among other parameters. Optical Character Recognition is performed on images upon upload so that the text in scanned documents, for example, is also searchable.

“Drive is a natural step in the evolution of Google Docs. Drive is built to work seamlessly with other Google applications like Google+, Docs and Gmail.”

As a standalone service Google Drive is no Dropbox killer. That is until you consider Drive’s ability to interact with existing Google products. Images and videos stored in Google Drive can be attached to posts in Google+, and soon this will extend to attaching all file types from Drive directly to emails in Gmail. This type of integration is Drive’s killer feature – upload once to Google Drive and share many times instantly, regardless of file size.

Expect instant “uploads” from Drive to roll-out to other Google-owned services like YouTube in the near future.

Google has also released Google Drive SDK, allowing developers to integrate Drive into their own applications. This means third-party services can let users store, create and open files anywhere using Google Drive. 18 Drive-compatible apps are available from today in the Chrome Web Store.

Google Drive is available for download on PC and Mac, granting Dropbox-like drag-and-drop folder integration. It’s also available from today on Android devices and on iPhone and iPad soon.

Drive offers 5GB of free storage to every user, with upgrade options starting at $2.49 per month.

Albizu Garcia

Albizu Garcia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gain -- a marketing technology company that automates the social media and content publishing workflow for agencies and social media managers, their clients and anyone working in teams.

Recent Posts

MWC 2025 Barcelona was the ultimate experiential marketing dream

Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona is the biggest annual event in the mobile technology…

13 hours ago

GAN, Tec de Monterrey partnership highlights cross-border startup ecosystem building in Latin America amid trade dispute

Despite recent tensions between the United States government and Latin American countries over migration and…

5 days ago

This founder started out with US $5K to his name. Now, he owns a multi-million-dollar global business

Meet Nitin Seth, the Co-Founder and CEO of Screen Magic (SMS Magic), a messaging leader…

5 days ago

Building smarter: AI, the ultimate tool transforming an old-age industry

In this Brains Byte Back, we sit down with Hari Vasudevan, founder and CEO of…

5 days ago

When AI Goes Rogue: 8 Lessons from Implementing LLMs in the Healthcare Industry that Could Save the Future

By Santosh Shevade, Principal Data Consultant at Gramener – A Straive company All pharmaceutical companies…

6 days ago

Digital Public Infrastructure will enable public, private entities to control your access to essential goods, services & mobility

Digital Public Infrastructure is a top-down agenda coming from unelected globalists, bureaucrats, and their partners…

2 weeks ago