They certainly didn't invent it, not least because their service is a shell for Amazon S3.
Which is interesting, as Amazon now offers their own (currently much less functional) competition to Dropbox, called CloudDrive.
I dunno. The only products which have really made my jaw drop in the last decade have come directly from Google (Earth, Street View,
Everything else has been pretty much evolutionary.
Actually, this comparison to Dropbox is largely irrelevant. Google has long had the stated intent to move everyone into the "cloud" (whatever that is at any given time.) If anything, this is another piece to their plan to unseat Microsoft as the dominant operating system supplier, and you do that by eliminating the very need for Windows and Office. Logically, if you want people to use your Web-based operating system and practice ubiquitous computing, you have to permit them to store their data online as well their applications. "The Network is the Computer." Oh wait
This isn't so much competition to Dropbox as it is a logical and necessary step along the path they've been on for some time now. Now, whether you agree with where they're going, and whether it will ultimately be good for society is another issue entirely. But this is not Google being like Microsoft and deliberately stepping on a smaller competitor (although that may be the result), but rather Google being entirely consistent with their long-stated goals. It just took them a while to get here.
Keep in mind that there's already plenty of competition to Dropbox, besides Google Drive you have Box, SkyDrive, Amazon's CloudDrive, and a host of other similar services, both free and paid. Google isn't even giving away the most free storage, either
Ultimately, though, the key to Google's approach is not how many gigabytes their giving away, but the integration with their other services. If all you want is free online storage, there are many better options to Google Drive right now, Dropbox being one of them (functionally Dropbox is about the best of them, I'd say.)
This is Google going head-to-head with Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon for as big a piece of the online pie as they can manage to convince us to give to them.
There's an enormous intersection. In fact, I'd be very suspicious of someone that claimed to be a programmer but wasn't musical or otherwise creative.
I'm a programmer and I'm writing a sci-fi novel. Does that count?
They should have renamed ado.net as Db.net.
Really, this is all much ado about nothing.
Yes, only Chernobyl was run by not for profit communists.
You and I must be thinking of different communists.
That's because none of us are actually thinking of communists, but of totalitarians. Regardless, the issue is not one of profit motive but of competence and solid regulation.
So we either accept the risks, doing what is possible to mitigate the worst of them, or declare the whole civilization thing a big mistake and go back into the trees.
Yes. As Cecil Adams once said, "It would be of great comfort to me if the Teeming Millions could learn to think rationally about such things."
I'm not so good at climbing, myself, so I think I'll just revert to the caveman lifestyle.
Is it time to begin a mass exodus of Facebook?
"I'm afraid that time has come and gone my friend." -- Professor Rapson, "The Day After Tomorrow"
won't mind placing their testicles in a vice operated by me.
So long as that vise is remotely-operated via a magic packet transmitted over the Internet.
If I have to worry about my private information being spread around at any moment, they should have to worry about their privates being spread around as well
Agreed,
intentions ain't worth nothing in law. Intentions can turn at any time. Rather just let not happen such a law in the first place.
You are being generous. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions
It's not "our version" of the MPAA and RIAA. AFACT is a front for the MPAA and that's a fact.
That's probably true, As Far As Anyone Can Tell.
On balance folks have more rights here, even if none of them are written down.
It does not matter if they are "written down" (e.g., codified into law) or not, if the people themselves aren't actively involved in policing their government and its policies. That's ultimately is what this is about: Americans need to start becoming political again, start paying attention, and make our politicians pay for what they've done.
I'm terrified by people who use multiple punctuation marks. Mostly because it indicates that they're probably a 13-year-old girl, an incredibly dangerous group of people to be talking to on the internet.
That's not a troll, it's true (as well as being funny) because you never know when one of those thirteen-year-olds will turn out to be a 57-year-old FBI agent.
don't have a girlfriend, wife won't let me have one
Oh, you have a wife. I'm sorry.
So...you're doing a cat scan of all electronic devices?
Actually, it was a PET scan.
As long as we're going to reinvent the wheel again, we might as well try making it round this time. - Mike Dennison
