Google Drive
 

Anyone care/interested/have opinions about Google Drive?

I like it because it's backed by Google. My biggest fear with Dropbox, Box, SpiderOak, etc., is that if they go under, all of my stuff could disappear instantly. I don't see Google disappearing anytime soon.

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 we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content."

Yep

I'm sure some users of Google Wave, Google Video, Google Notebook, Dodgeball and other abandoned or altogether shut down Google services thought the same.

Good point, but I doubt Drive will shut down. Those all shut down because they were poorly conceived and weren't popular.

FWIW I like it.

Selective cut/paste?

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

Apparently "you retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold" but "you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license"..."Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services."

Selective YES. This is not meant to be a discussion of Google's policies. That is why there is a direct link to the policies. There is a tendency of these threads digress from the main topic.
The message is BEWARE. I am not a lawyer but the wording appears to be tricky and in conflict with itself. Most people never read the terms but just agree and continue on. Up to the individual to decide...

Full Content:
"Your Content in our Services
Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

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 we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights 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 you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services. "

.

Simple way to maintain your own data in a similar way would be using a Synology NAS unit at home and using their "Cloud Station." Not as simple as Dropbox, but I maintain 100% ownership. That said, I do still use Dropbox.

Google's solution sounds interesting, but I also noticed they increased cost of additional storage a lot. I bought extra storage for Picasa a while back. It was $5 annually for 20GB of storage. Now 25GB is $2.49/mo.

If you have the old plan, you are grandfathered in under that plan.

-David

It's just Google Docs given a new name....

Microsoft has SkyDrive and for those who already have that set up, it is 25GBs free and has an iPhone/iPad app.

Google Drive doesn't yet have an iOS ap and the free volume is a fraction of the 25GB that Microsoft's SkyDrive offers.

Note: those who have previously set up a SkyDrive with Microsoft should make sure to select to maintain the 25GB allowance ASAP as they have cut the free allowance in general to something under 7GB for those not grandfathered in by taking some action now.

I maintain most of my own files on my own equipment and use remote access off a collection of 1-2TB "fire/water proof" drives, but sometimes I want an alternative and SkyDrive has worked well enough for a lot of that too.

Walter Mossberg of the WSJ has a piece in today's WSJ about Google Drive. The full article can be pulled up in a google news search by cutting and pasting all the words from the following quote and entering into the news search:

Google Drive is not just "Google Docs" given a new name, although Mossberg does call it an evolution of (from) Google Docs. I consider it more an evolution from Gmail, because using Gmail as a virtual drive has been done for longer. Google Drive sort of includes Google Docs.

I like DropBox because it syncs my files among machines, in addition to keeping an online backup. Even if they went under today, my files are on my laptop, netbook, and HTPC desktop.

Is Drive simply cloud storage, or does it sync among devices also? It is rather vague on that point.

You do not give up your copyright by uploading - You are granting Google and affiliates an unlimited license to use your intellectual properties.

So - if you store some photographs on the drive, Google can sell usage rights for it without any compensation to you.

Yes, but that doesn't help anyone else, or me if I need to up/downgrade.

...Unless Dropbox deletes your files, in which case the Dropbox app located on all your machines would delete all of your copies of the files. Just something I keep in the back of my head.