Google Drive Receives Tighter Gmail Integration with Focus on Attachments
November 14, 2013
By Rory Lidstone, TMCnet Contributing Writer
It’s been roughly a year and a half since Google (News - Alert) first attempted to challenge Dropbox for cloud storage dominance by releasing Google Drive. In that time, the service has gathered 120 million active users. This is thanks in part to Google’s efforts to improve the service — for example upping its free storage to 15GB earlier this year — which, aside from the odd hiccup, has been solid.
But, if we’re being honest, most people are using Google Drive for its Google service integration, and the company knows this. That’s why it has launched additional features tying Google Drive more closely to Gmail, arguably Google’s most popular and most-used service.
In particular, Google has changed the way attachments are handled in Gmail, allowing users to save them directly to Drive. Previously, users had to download attachments to their computer then reupload them to Google Drive — a tedious and unnecessary process. Additionally, attachments have received an updated preview mode that calls to mind the way Android (News - Alert) and iOS handle downloaded files. This updated preview functionality works with photos, videos, spreadsheets and PDFs.
“We’re trying to unify the file experience across Google and then beyond,” said Scott Johnston, director of product management at Google, in a statement. “The key for us is that attachments are the highest form of sharing in the electronic world. So, how do you take attachments and build a bridge to the rest of the experience?”
According to Johnston, this is just the latest in a range of feature changes made to Drive since its launch, alongside design, layout and user experience tweaks. Still, Drive has a long way to go.
While 120 million is an impressive number, there were 175 million registered Dropbox users as of July, according to AllThingsD, around which time there were 250 million Microsoft (News - Alert) SkyDrive users. Meanwhile iCloud boasts 320 million accounts.
Edited by Alisen Downey