Google Drive vs. Dropbox - Episode 272

With the news that Dropbox is opening up access to it's cloud editing software this week I thought it would be good to revisit my never ending comparison between the two products.

In my ongoing comparisons between Google Drive and Dropbox I've come across a huge win for Google Drive. When two users both have access to a file in Dropbox that file takes up space in both user's accounts. This means that if you are working with someone and they load up a shared folder with little regard for the storage space it takes up you could get locked out of your account and have no option but to delete that shared folder from your account.

That is because Dropbox locks your account (Google probably does the same) when you go over your storage limit. The problem here is you have no control of someone else's files counting against your limit.

In Google Drive the file size only counts towards the owner of that file. So if you share a folder with someone their storage quota will not be affected.

Another great feature of Google Drive is that any Google Docs / Sheets or / Slides files do not even count against your storage quota. I have not tested Dropbox's new cloud software or if it takes up your storage space but given how stingy they are I'm willing to bet that it will.

Google Drive vs. Dropbox - Episode 258

Someone commented on my last post about Google Drive vs Dropbox and said that only Drive requires people to sign in when you send them a link to a folder.  This is untrue.

When I share a dropbox link to someone without a dropbox account and they click on it this is what pops up:

The user can click the 'x' and proceed to click the very useful big blue "Download" button. So it is not true that Dropbox requires you to log in (I never claimed that) but it does ask if you want to sign up which is still annoying for non-dropbox users. It gives the illusion that they have to sign up in order to get the files.

However, when I share a Google Drive link to a folder and someone without a Google account clicks on it this is what they see:

There is no requirement to sign in which is great. But you will note, however, that there is still no clear way for people to download the files from the Drive folder. All people see is the big blue "Sign In" button. This button ends up doing the same thing that Dropbox does. It insinuates that the user must Sign in to do anything with those files. They do not realize that they can click on each file individually and click an obscure looking download button to download each file at a time.  

This is what it looks like when a user clicks on a file:

The interface is nice and it actually works great. The usability is far nicer and slicker than Dropbox but the lack of a "Download All" button for people who are not signed in is a real problem. This is the problem I covered in my previous Drive vs Dropbox post.

It really needs to be addressed though.

Google Drive shows Google+ Photos: It's 3/4 Baked

While I'm on the topic of Google Drive, they announced that your Google+ photos will now appear in your Google Drive (the Verge). This is one thing I've been waiting a long time for. However there is a catch.... really it is just copying the photos to a new location. They aren't the same file. 

This means that if you edit a file in the new drive folder it will sync between the web and your drive folder on your hard drive BUT it will not sync to the Google+ album.

This is what it looks like:

I took some pics on my phone and they uploaded to G+ Photos. I check in Drive and see the Google Photos folder. Yay they are in there.

Then it asks me if I want to link Google Photos to my Drive so I say "Sure". Then it copies them to my Drive folder and they sync to my computer! - I'm getting excited.

I edit one of the photos on my hard drive and save it. Then check Drive online and the saved photo was eventually synced. Okay....

Now I check Google+ for the same photos. 

Nope the edit was not made. So that confirms that the file is different and when pictures get added to Drive from Google+ and added to  Google+ from Drive (another feature they added last year) it is really just making a copy of the same picture.

So yeah it is half-baked at this point, maybe 3/4 baked but not done.

If they did sync the same photo everywhere then you could have your edited albums synced to G+ and show up on the Chromecast and be backed up on Drive.

Google Drive vs. Dropbox - Episode 237

Over the past year of using both Dropbox and Google Drive to send files and folders to clients and consultants we work with I've encountered some strange things.

Usually it's someone who can't comprehend the fact that the file isn't in the email and subsequently has problems with clicking on the link and not understanding that they have to download the file.

I think both Drive and Dropbox ask people to sign in when they click a shared link which is annoying and unnecessary. But where Dropbox has the edge is when you go to download you can either save the files to your personal dropbox or download the files as a zip file.

They give you the choice! Imagine that!

But Google Drive just says "Open in Drive" which completely confuses people who don't use or have never heard of Drive.  There should be another blue button beside it that says "Download".

So the only way to download multiple files is to go into each file and click the download button. This can take forever if there are several files.

They have to slowly ease people into this new world order of cloud storage rather than force them to learn how cumbersome it can be.