Blog posts tagged Google

What does Google Drive mean for business?

The launch of the long-rumoured Google Drive happened yesterday. But is this online storage a useful new service for businesses, or is it a step too far for a company that already knows so much about you?

What is Google Drive?

If you’ve ever used Dropbox, SkyDrive, Box, SugarSync or any other cloud-based storage, you’ll be familiar with what Google Drive does. It gives you access to online storage, to which you can upload documents, photos, files … any of your data, basically.

You create a special folder on your computer (your ‘Google Drive’). Anything placed in this folder gets uploaded to your online storage. Here’s why you might do this:

• Easier backup. Google Drive creates a second copy of your data online. So it’s an easy way to backup your data.
• File synchronisation. If you use more than one computer, you can put your Google Drive on all of them – so files are managed across your computers.
• Anywhere access. You can log in to Google Drive through your web browser, meaning you can get at your files from any internet-connected computer.
• Easier sharing. You can share files with other people just by emailing them – and you can control who can view, edit and comment on them.

But what’s new? All these features are already offered by most of the other online storage services I mentioned above. Is there anything to make Google Drive different?

The Google Drive difference?

Perhaps the biggest thing that sets Google Drive apart from its competitors is the fact that it’s one of a whole portfolio of services from the ubiquitous search engine. This means Google Drive is closely integrated with elements of the company's other services. For instance:

• It works with Google Documents. This means you can edit documents stored in your Google Drive using Google Docs, the company’s online office suite.
• Searching it should be really, really good. Google does search better than anyone. So finding anything in your Google Drive should be a piece of the proverbial.
• It claims to recognise your photos. Apparently, Google Drive will recognise photos of things like the Eiffel Tower, so you can find them more easily.

There’s one other thing that makes Google Drive attractive, and that’s the price. It’s significantly cheaper than most competitors. For instance, it costs $9.99 a month (all the prices are in US dollars, even though I’m in the UK) for 50GB of storage with Dropbox. With Google Drive, twice that costs $4.99.

As with most cloud storage services, there’s also a basic free option – Google Drive gives you 5GB free, which is actually enough for loads of documents.

The true cost of Google Drive?

Google Drive is poised to shake up the online storage market. Expect prices of competing services to drop over the next few months, as Google takes a big bite of the market.

It may also be worth considering if your business already uses other Google Services, because Google Drive will work very well with them. If you’re using Google Apps for your email and document editing, then Google Drive may be a logical next step.

However, before you jump in with both feet, it’s worth just stopping to think through the implications of the service. Google uses detailed information about its users in order to show them targeted advertising. For instance, the adverts you see in Google Mail are determined – to some extent – by the content of your emails.

Google is likely to extend this capability with Google Drive. It might not show you adverts within your Google Drive, but it will almost certainly analyse your data to help it target ads at you when you’re signed in to other Google services.

So, are you comfortable granting Google access to your files, some of which may contain important business or personal information? The answer to that will probably depend on your attitude towards the company overall, and your feelings about targeted advertising.

As part of its Google Drive FAQ, CNET has a good summary of how Google says it may use your files. You might also be interested in this succinct argument against the service from Chris Armstrong and Aral Balkan’s interesting analogy.

Read Google’s official announcement about Google Drive. Will you be signing up to try the service?

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Google+ review - Our first look at Google+

Google's last attempt at creating a social network to rival Facebook was called Google Buzz. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have ever really caught on.

However, if it's buzz you're looking for, there was certainly a lot of that after last week's arrival of Google+ (Google Plus). If you're not clear on what we're talking about, take a look at this short introduction video.

Invited users only - for now

The search giant's latest attempt to take on Facebook is only available to invited users at the moment, but I've taken a first look to see whether it can really rival Facebook.

Actually getting in is the first battle. A huge number of people want Google+ accounts, but it's tricky to get an invite at the moment. In fact, even if you've managed to snag one, the service is currently over capacity - so you can't try it out anyway!

That's far from ideal - and of course, even if you are one of the lucky few, without your friends and contacts on Google+ it can seem somewhat lonely and boring!

Google+ vs. Facebook: round one!

I have been lucky enough to get an early invite to Google+, and the one thing that hit me straight away was the potential for it to bridge the gap between home and work life. It could perhaps genuinely be the first 'all day' social platform.

Here are 10 reasons Google+ wins over Facebook every time:

• The interface just looks and feels more professional. It's that simple!
• It's easy to keep home and business separate without having to have lots of accounts. Google+ includes something called Circles, which is really easy to use. Watch this video to see how Circles work.
• Unlike Facebook, at the moment the streams seem more intuitive. For example, images are easier to review. You can quickly see streams by circle too, cutting out lots of noise.
• Google dominates search and this means Google+ will deliver an integrated platform. That means people will use it as a search engine and - dare I say it - a ‘homepage’ from which they can base their internet life.
• Google knows advertising and has the data to create a rich, intuitive advertising platform. This will work well for users and advertisers as the ads should match people's interests well, and be delivered at the right time and in the best format (for instance, video for video lovers).
• Google is already way ahead in search. No matter what the social media gurus tell you, our friends only influence how we search. They do not deliver all our recommendations. Google's ability to link friends' behaviours with ours and show this when you search will make it even easier to find just what you need, when you need it.
• Google+ Sparks is another part of Google+. It's meant to find stuff you'll like, so when you have some spare time, there's always something for you to look at. It seems to be a great way to group people by interest, helping you find other people who are like you. And, of course, it'll help advertisers find and target groups of people.
• People don’t like noise. Yet when we're online, we have to deal with a huge amount of it. Updates here, 'likes' there, images, video ... you name it! Google+ can help us block the noise and speak to the most relevant people at any time.
• It has all the features you’d find in Facebook. Sure, you can argue that they are different in many ways, but the main ideas are all there. Looking at the interface I’d say Google has done its user testing too, because it seems that all the things people hate about Facebook are missing!
• Quite simply it’s Google. If they can learn from the failures they’ve had in social media (and they’ve had plenty), we can expect an intuitive, far-reaching bunch of tools, They could have the capability to pull our entire online life together in one place.

Having said all that, there's one thing to remember. We have seen this before from Google, more than once. And each time their new tool generated oodles of publicity, only to fall flat.

The company has a history of struggling with social media. But could this be the time they crack it? I'd say it just might be.

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• Using the internet to find information

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