Google states that Cloud Search respects file-sharing permissions, meaning that users will only see results for files they have access to. Users can sync files between their device and the cloud with apps for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS computers, and Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. With Google Drive, users can upload any type of file to the cloud, share them with others, and access them from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. Google opened the Workspace Marketplace, on March 9, 2010, which is an online store for third-party business applications that integrate with Google Apps, to make it easier for users and software to do business in the cloud.
Store, access and scan files
Drive Enterprise includes Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides which permits collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, forms, and other file types. While documents and images can be saved directly, webpages can be saved in the form of a screenshot (as an image of the visible part of the page or the entire page), or as a raw HTML, MHTML, or Google Docs file. This included improved keyboard accessibility, support for zooming and high contrast mode, and better compatibility with screen readers. In December 2016, Google updated the Android app and website with a “Backups” section, listing the Android device and app backups saved to Drive. In September 2016, Google added “natural language processing” for searching on the Google Drive website, enabling specific user search queries like “find my budget spreadsheet from last December”.
Google Drive web, desktop and mobile apps
Google Drive is a cloud-based storage service that enables users to store, access, and share files and folders online. The features are largely centered around utilizing the right sidebar of Drive and other Workspace apps to including utilizing its chatbot to perform tasks with access to files stored across users’ Google Accounts. Google Workspace comprises Gmail, Chat, Meet, Calendar, Drive for storage; Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Keep for notes, Sites for collaboration, Apps Script for building low-code/no-code business applications; and an Admin panel and Vault for managing users and the services. The Quick Access feature for the Android, iOS and web apps uses machine learning to predict files that users will need based on their Drive activity and workday patterns. Google Drive’s mobile apps for iOS and Android allow users to store, share and view files.
- Google Tasks lets users capture and manage to-dos anywhere in Google Workspace or using iOS and Android apps.
- On November 12, 2013, Google announced that Google Drive had 120 million active users, a figure that the company was releasing for the first time.
- Once logged in, they can access Drive by visiting drive.google.com or by selecting Drive from the Google Apps menu (the grid icon) in any Google cloud service.
- On February 22, 2007, Google introduced Google Apps Premier Edition, which differed from the free version by offering more storage (10 GB per user), APIs for business integration, 99.9% uptime for Gmail, and 24/7 phone support.
- The main Google Drive mobile app supported editing of documents and spreadsheets until April 2014, when the capability was moved to separate, standalone apps for Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides.
- In September 2017, Google announced that it would discontinue the Google Drive desktop app in March 2018 and end support in December 2017.
- The suite is tightly integrated with Google Drive, and all files created with the apps are by default saved to Google Drive.
While most third-party apps are free to install, some charge fees for premium features. These were replaced by Backup and Sync for personal users and Drive File Stream for business users. Google Drive provides shared storage for all files created and used within the Google Workspace ecosystem.
Customers
In 2023, a bug in Google Drive for Desktop resulted in a small number of files over a period of 6-months to disappear from user’s accounts. The website and Android app offer a Backups section to see what Android devices have data backed up to the service, and a completely overhauled computer app released in July 2017 allows for backing up specific folders on the user’s computer. On the website, users can search for an image by describing its visuals, and use natural language to find specific files, such as “find my budget spreadsheet from last December”. Users can change privacy settings for individual files and folders, including enabling sharing with other users or making content public. The key competitor to the Google suite is 365, Microsoft’s cloud-based offering for businesses that includes similar products. Tom’s Hardware’s James Gaskin wrote that “like most Google products, it can claim the cleanest and most minimal interface in the market”, and “No other suite except Office 365 can get close to the ease of collaboration Google provides. And even Microsoft’s product trails by a wide margin as changes only appear in real-time in Word 2016, not the other apps”.
Google Sheets
Then, on October 25, 2016, Google launched the betico first hardware product for G Suite, the Jamboard; a 55-inch digital whiteboard connected to the cloud. Eric Schmidt, then Google’s executive chairman said, “we never set out to create a traditional ‘enterprise’ business—we wanted to create a new way of doing work (…) so the time has come for our name to catch up with our ambition”. Google Enterprise, the company’s business product division, was officially renamed Google for Work on September 2, 2014.
- If anyone tries to sign in to these services from these countries or regions, they would get an error message.
- As that did not happen in this instance, we apologize to everyone who was inconvenienced by this event.
- The pricing of Drive Enterprise is based on usage, with $8 per active user per month, plus $0.04 per GB per month.
- Our engineers are conducting a post-mortem investigation to determine how to make our services more resilient to unplanned network failures, and we will do our utmost to continue to make Google service outages notable for their rarity.
- While documents and images can be saved directly, webpages can be saved in the form of a screenshot (as an image of the visible part of the page or the entire page), or as a raw HTML, MHTML, or Google Docs file.
Google Drive’s search feature can sort results by item name, file type, date modified, location, owner and more. Google Drive supports integrations with both first-party and third-party applications available through the Chrome Web Store. However, those who need offline access can use Google Docs Offline, an official Chrome extension that enables viewing and editing without an internet connection. They can control access levels by specifying who can view, comment on or edit the content.
Shared Drives
Google announced that G Suite would be rebranded as Google Workspace on October 6, 2020, and that Workspace would emphasize increased integration between the apps, such as the ability to create Docs from within Chats, or start a Meet call from within a presentation. Google unified the storage between Drive and Gmail, on May 13, 2013, giving Google Apps customers 30GB total that are shared across the apps. Nearly five years after the launch of Google Apps, on April 26, 2011, Google announced that organizations with more than 10 users were no longer eligible for the free edition of Google Apps.
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite and Google Apps) is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. Choose folders on your computer to sync with Google Drive or backup to Google Photos, and access all of your content directly from your PC or Mac While Google Drive offers numerous benefits for individuals and businesses, it also has some drawbacks. To further protect user accounts, Google Drive supports two-factor authentication.
