by This is my third Google Drive article in as many days, and I can’t help writing about the cloud storage service because I have been waiting so long for it to become a reality. Last night, I did what I hoped I wouldn’t have to do for a long while: I gave up my 80 gigs at $20 a year deal for 200 gigs for $9.99 a month! Yes, I upgraded to a Google Drive is that four times larger than the available space on my MacBook Air SSD!
I don’t care that I have a massive Google Cloud drive now because I know I will find ways to fill it with lots of stuff and other Apps-to-come will use it, too — and the beauty part about Google Drive is that not everything needs to be locally mirrored on my SSD. I’ll create a “Locker” folder on the cloud side of the Drive for my archives and tell the Google Drive App not to sync that folder to my local computer.
Here’s what drove me to push the button on the upgrade. I am currently a paying Dropbox user. I’m on the 50 gig “Pro” plan and, because I decided not to continue my subscription, I have removed all my backup files from Dropbox.
I paid Dropbox $99.00 a year for a measly 50 gigs of storage space! I just checked the Dropbox site again, and the price is unchanged. I can get FOUR TIMES as much cloud space — 200 GIGS! — on Google Drive for my stuff for pretty much the same price as what Dropbox offers for 50 gigs.
Can we confess it now? Dropbox are dead and gone. They’re too slow to react to the Google Drive threat and their ongoing hoops-jumping for users to earn more free space is just silly and antiquated.
Right after I purchased my 200 gig upgrade on Google Drive, I refreshed the “Buy Storage” page and saw the upgrade was already live — and free! — until June 26, 2012! Two months of free space? Yes, thank you!
I don’t know why Google are using commas instead of periods on their pricing page. They need to fix that because it looks confusing.
My Google Drive App also immediately reflected my upgrade status, though the Google Drive App said I was using 44.08 gigs and 22% of my upgraded drive, while the purchase page had those same numbers only seconds ago at 39 gigs and 19.54%.
I kept checking for the upgraded storage space inside my actual Google Drive last night, but it didn’t update with the new specs until this morning.
It looks like Google Drive and the Google Drive App agree a little better: I’m using 45.14 gigs and 22% of my current Google Drive. In my experience, the actual Google Drive interface is always the most accurate and up-to-date reckoning for storage used. I also like it I can now upload Apple .PAGES files to Google Drive.
Remember in my first review how there was an error when you clicked on a Google Voice missed call file that now magically appears in your Google Drive? That matter is now fixed, as you can see in the screenshot below.
One fantastic secret I discovered in my 200 gig upgrade to paying monthly is an incredible speed increase in the responsiveness of my Google Drive. With the standard, yearly, 80 gig plan, Google Drive was pretty slow at times. I have a lot of files, so I thought I was just stressing out the server. With the upgrade to 200 gigs, my Google Drive flies! It is, in a word — “SuperFast!” — and that fact alone makes the upgrade worth every monthly penny.
Seems a bit odd that the 80 gig plan would be slower — as though Google has a shortage of space or something. More like they are rewarding people who pay more with faster performance. If they’d be forthcoming about it, that would be preferable.
That’s a good point, Gordon. I know Google are in the process of transitioning all existing Google Docs files to a “new” and improved format. Perhaps this speed enhancement I’m seeing is part of that next-gen upgrade?
So this google drive looks like dropbox to me.. Works ok so far. And for you guys that are paranoid about your stuff(like me), you should always encrypt before you upload to any service. My rule #1.
Soooooooooooooooo slow
What is so slow?
The storage available on Google Drive is great. However, there’s absolutely no threat to Dropbox, because Dropbox is much, MUCH faster, much more reliable and has a much better UI. I’m amazed that Google haven’t been able to develop something better than this with all their resources. The current product is way behind Dropbox: slow, unreliable and with poor feedback on synch status.
Thanks for your comment. I find Google Drive much better and more reliable thank Dropbox in every way.