As a Google Apps user I’ve waited a long time for a better way to upload and download Google Documents than one at a time via a web browser; and it’s been a source of frustration that I’ve only been allowed to upload certain types of documents. Well now Google and friends have finally announced an official way to store and share files in the cloud – the ‘G drive’ we’ve been waiting years for. But why now? why has it taken so long? and why don’t Google provide the desktop application themselves?
It’s taken so long because Google have been trying to wean us away from our dependency on PCs and Macs, and rather than totally admit defeat they’ve published an API and allowed third parties to get their hands dirty with operating systems and proprietary file formats. Why now? Are Google a bit worried about the upcoming release of Microsoft Office Web Apps?
Anyway, the ‘G drive’ is called Memeo connect, which:
- costs $9 per user per year, according to the excellent PC world article: ‘Memeo Connects Google Docs to the Desktop‘ and other sources, although Memeo don’t display prices on their own website
- works on both PC and Macs for Google Apps Premier Edition users only
- converts file formats between Google Docs and Office 2003
- affords sychronisation between and any kind of file (and their folders) on your local file system and Google docs
So when can we expect the iphone application, I wonder? And what will this mean for the likes of Dropbox and Windows Live?
As the popularity of Google Docs and Memeo Connect continues to grow, it’s safe to say that an iPhone application from Memeo is in the plans. Especially since Memeo already makes some nice mobile applications for Memeo Share on the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry.
robert@memeo
By: robert@memeo on January 13, 2010
at 9:11 pm
Thanks, Robert. I look forward to it!
By: drmiw on January 13, 2010
at 11:56 pm
Microsoft Office web applications might give much better features but waiting to see the perfomance of it and hope they will bring up some integrations in their new mobile operating system to have much better office web applications.
By: Rohan Fernando on January 20, 2010
at 7:32 am
I have been using Gladinet to map a network drive letter to Google Docs. So far so good.
http://www.gladinet.com/gladinet-cloud-desktop-for-google-docs-gdrive.htm
By: Zack on February 9, 2010
at 5:30 pm