Shut up and ‘Drive’: Could Google’s new cloud computing service be the next big thing?
April 29, 2012
Google has announced the arrival of its latest project and dubbed the cloud computing service "Google Drive."
Drive allows users to access their files at anytime, on any platform and starts users off with 5GB of free storage. The new service will ultimately replace Google Docs once an account switches over to Drive, but will retain many of the same features that Google Docs provided.
Users of the service simply install an app for their Windows PC or Mac and can then sync their files with their Drive account so no matter what, the files will be updated in real time and can be accessed from your tablet, phone, work, or anywhere for that matter…
Drive also has interesting features like its Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology which allows Drive to recognize text in scanned PDF’s and images, giving users the ability to search for text within an image.
People will still be able to create and collaborate on documents like they did while using Google Docs and in the future, the service will be integrated with Gmail accounts so that users can also attach said files from their Drive storage into an e-mail.
Google is the latest to join in on the battle of cloud computing, but what exactly will make them stand out from say, Apple’s iCloud or Dropbox?
Engadget has a helpful table comparing the benefits of all the different cloud computing services out there and Google’s Drive seems to lead the pack with cost and affordability.
Drive also has interesting features like its Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology which allows Drive to recognize text in scanned PDF’s and images, giving users the ability to search for text within an image.
While Google Drive may not unseat Dropbox as the primary go-to service for cloud computing, The Next Web pointed out that it may appeal to users already entrenched in Google services: “There are those who aren’t as tied to their Dropbox accounts and would welcome deeper Google integration.”
We’ll just have to wait and see whether or not Drive will be the service that allows Google to flourish even more, and it looks like Google is set on trying to make this service work.