There are countless add-ons like this which extend the capabilities of Drive, although unlike with Boxs Cloud service these dont always go as far as to integrate with the Google Drive mobile apps.

Although Drives most basic form is a file synchronisation tool, it has many added extras which are perfect for helping you work in the Cloud.

Review Of Google Drive Free Offering Is

Googles free offering is up there with even the most generous of its rivals.

Paid storage options are incredibly cheap, too: 100GB of storage will cost you 2 (around 1.20) a month, which is a staggeringly small price, although OneDrive has closed the gap with 100GB costing 2.

Even more impressive is that for 10 (around 6) per month you can get 1TB of space, which is more than the physical hard disk space you get in many laptops and desktops.

The one caveat of all this space is that its shared between your Gmail and Google social networking accounts as well, although only large photos uploaded to Google will count towards your limits.

YouTube, Googles video sharing service, doesnt count towards this total.

DESKTOP APPLICATION Google Drives desktop application for Mac and Windows is simple, but does most of the things wed expect of it.

After installing the application, uploading a file to Drive is as simple as dragging and dropping into the Google Drive folder.

Also welcome is the presence of selective synchronisation options, meaning you can choose which folders are kept up to date on each device on which you install Drive.

If a file is modified, Google Drive will immediately upload that change to the Cloud, ensuring your files reflect the latest version.

Sharing files with friends and colleagues from the desktop interface is somewhat more complicated than with the likes of OneDrive and Dropbox: when you right-click a file stored in Drive in Windows Explorer and click the share button, youre presented with a dialogue box which forces you to decide exactly how you want the file to be shared, and with whom - youre not given a simple link you can share.

While this does ensure users wont make the mistake of sharing a file in a way they didnt intend, it is a bit of a convoluted method for something which should be very simple.

WEB INTERFACE The true power of Google Drive is to be found on its web interface at.

Here you can see all the files in your Drive and even edit compatible documents without having to open a traditional desktop application such as Microsoft Word.

This means you can view and edit many files without the need for your home PC.

At its 2014 IO event, Google announced an update to its web and mobile services which means users can now edit Microsoft Office format files such as.docx and.xlsx within Drive without having to convert them to a Google file format first.

While this feature is in its early stages, it greatly increases Drives flexibility for users who move between Microsofts Office desktop software and Google Drives web applications.

Review Of Google Drive Download A Chrome

Youll need to download a Chrome extension in order to make this work on your PC.

If youre trying to view items with more obscure file extensions, Google Drive does appear to get slightly confused.

We attempted to listen to a.flac audio file using Drives integrated media player, but instead it directed us to open with Google Drive Viewer, another page on Drive which also couldnt play the file.

We were then able to download the file, but after multiple unnecessary steps we neednt have taken.

What this odd design actually shows off, however, is the vast array of third-party add-ons that can be integrated with Google Drive.

While Drive couldnt tell us what to do with the file and wouldnt recommend any appropriate add-ons, a quick web search brought us to a subscription service called AudioBox which can play.flac files directly from Drive on the web.

Review Of Google Drive For Mac