Drive sucks, Drive could be great

Posted by ubers on April 28, 2012 01:35 am 9

I was going to submit feedback to Google but quickly reached the 500 character limit. I thought of other ways to contact them, but realized I could get a little more voice in the Verge forums if other agreed with me. I just updated my cr-48 to the newest Dev channel update and it's awesome. Aura breathes new life into this device. Window snapping is a feature hard to go without since I've been using Windows 7. One of the perks that go along with the update is the permission to check out Google Drive. My feelings on that aren't quite as good. Currently, Drive does only a few things well:

1. Lightweight installers and apps - This is very important to me, and a lot of people agree. I hate installing heavy programs that get in my way, and a syncing app has barely any need to be accessed after it's installation.

2. Ease of sharing - This feature comes inherently from Docs. As a student I need to share files each semester. The ease of sharing with teammates rocks. Collaboration in real-time can really boost up productivity, and cut out the time needed to stitch several different documents together.

But Drive is limited much like the big two, Dropbox and SkyDrive. I think there are a few big game-winning features missing from almost all syncing services:

1. Watch any folder - I know this one is obvious, but its very important. Why should all the files i want to sync have to be in the same folder? Very annoying.

2. Sync devices over local network - A device shouldn't need to connect to the internet to sync when there is a local device who's sync is up to date. It takes less bandwidth and time(sometimes much less) to download from LAN device.

3. Selective Syncing - I dont want every folder synced everywhere. I know this feature is already available for devices, but it's not available for the cloud storage. I have a few files that are really big but easily replaceable, so I only want a copy synced across some of my devices, and definitely not into the cloud.

4. Sync multiple accounts - I know many people that have multiple accounts. I have two accounts myself, one for personal use and one for school.

These features are not Drive-centric, in the sense that all syncing services should have them. But Dropbox has had enough time to implement these features, and Microsoft has moved away from these features in their premier service service SkyDrive. MS has another service called Windows Live Mesh that implements most of these features. Check it out if you've never seen it before. It's an insanely good syncing service available right now, even with its issues and major limitations. The installer feels really heavy, the ability to share collaborations is non-existent, it's limited to Windows machines only, and did I mention its getting discontinued soon?

I currently use Mesh to sync my desktop and laptop, but I want Drive to supersede because of the availability Google apps across almost all devices. Unfortunately its too limited, and like the editors perfectly described, it just feels like a "me too" initiative. Couple some of these "flexibility" suggestions with tighter integration into Google's other services into Drive and it will be the service everyone is trying to catch up to.