I think I’ve said this a lot… I love Cloud Storage.  USB drives feel so much like banging words into rock.  I’ve reviewed and showed you updates on TONS.  But amidst all of it, I’m a Google services user, and felt the mobile service lacked something that really tied it all together.

Sure, we had Instant Upload with Google+, Document storage with Google Docs, Emails on Gmail, Music in Play Music, etc… but nothing to tie it all together.

Then today (yesterday, depends on when I publish this) they launch Google Drive.

There had been rumours for quite some time now about it, and what it could do, or what amount it might have.  But they released it (I was pegging for the 27th it was going to drop, but… Google, they like keeping people on their toes).

I was one of the lucky ones apparently to get it right away.  Google+ went all a flutter with folks noticing their Docs storage was now 5GB and not just 1.  And when it was announced, you had to try to update your Android app a couple times before it would actually go.

All that touch and go aside, I had the app.  Yay me… my dreams were coming true of a Google services centric cloud storage option.

But wait… it looks exactly like Docs… really.  There’s not much difference.  Sure enough the names are changed… but I don’t see how this is any different that Docs was.  Sure, we get 5GB for free now, but that’s about it.

I was really hoping for a collation of all my google ‘files’ in one spot that I could peruse through.  What would be great is if it even mounted as some sort of ‘cloud drive’ on my phone.

Instead we have Google Docs with a Dropbox like desktop app to sync.  I won’t get into the desktop app (well, maybe if I have time tomorrow).  But in the end there is no difference than how we did things with Docs.

Not so exciting.  Ah well, at least I’ll go and get the extra storage space and cement everything in.  C’mon, space was cheap.  $5/year for 20GB (or any multiple therein).  It was the cheapest in my list.

I remember looking at that option during the whole transition period and seeing that it hadn’t changed (note, you need to be in one of my circles to see that G+ post).  But for some reason, I didn’t follow through with the transaction.  When I actually wanted to go buy space, I was greeted with:

Which is funny it’s saying I’m using 0% of my Drive, yet in the setting it shows:

I’m assuming the discrepancy is some growing pains.  Anywyas…

Somehow the usage fee for extra space went from

$5/year/20GB = 25¢ / year / GB

to a whopping

$30/year/25GB = $1.20 / year / GB

or

$60/year/100GB = $0.60 / year / GB

Now, it gets a little cheaper the more you buy… but even at the 100GB option, it’s more than double the cost.  WTH?

Yes, there will be those that say “more people will use it now”, or “they were probably losing money at the old rate plans”, etc… how long has Picasa Web Albums or Google Docs been around… and only now they want to raise the price.  Had they kept the old pricing I’m sure thousands would leave other storages to come to Google and buy en mass!

Yeah, the price is still approximate to the competitors (look at my spreadsheet below, I’ve updated it now for Drive), but what nobody is answering, and what really ticks me off is the price increase.  Unjustifiably in my opinion, thus far.

They’ve gone and said not only that if you bought the old plan we’ll honour it for the term of the contract (ie. the end of the year), but INDEFINITELY!  Had I only pressed that button today… but nobody will say why there was the price increase.

In summation?

Okay, so pricing aside… how do I feel about Google Drive?

It’s the same as Docs, and how could I not LOVE Google Docs.  I just have 5GB now for non Docs files.  Can’t argue with that.  Plus I’ll have quick access to the files on my computer now with it’s Dropbox-like desktop software.

So, I’ll continue to use it… enthusiastically so.  In fact you’ll still find I use Docs for a variety of ‘embeddings’ (can I still call them ‘docs’?).

And to those nay-sayers about ‘beware of Google’… grow up.  Saw this floating around the internet trying to scare people away from using the service by publishing this bit of their terms of service:

Sounds all spooky right?  Like almighty Google will steal your files, rob your children of their toothfairy money and impregnate your dog.

But they’ve forgotten one bit of the ToS:

found it on:  http://phandroid.com/2024/04/24/googles-terms-of-service-may-scare-users-away-from-google-drive/

So… what’s yours, is yours.  That’s the way I read it… and besides if you’re really that scared of anybody using something of yours on the internet, why are you on in the first place?  Ok… that’s over the top, I get it.  But still, enough with people saying they’re evil.  If you want to call them evil, call them on what they’ve done (like jack up the price of a pre-existing service), but not over some weird angle of legalese.

How are you liking Google Drive?