Google Drive has arrived

Google’s cloud storage service is finally available. It offers the promise of accessing files, even large ones, from any location or device. With Google Drive, you can create new documents, spreadsheets, presentations and charts, and easily share with others. There is the suggestion of collaborative work, by two or more, on the same document simultaneously. In reality, that is rarely feasible. Well, it is difficult to do productively. Shared access is convenient for meetings and small work groups though.

Accessing Google Drive with Win 7

As with Google Docs, one may search by keyword, and filter by file type, owner or file size.  Over 30 file types are accessible from your browser. This includes HD video, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop— this part is key: File access does not require the program to be installed on your computer!

The first 5 GB of storage is free of charge for all Google accounts.

Availability

Google Drive may be used on a variety of computers and devices, including PCs, Macs and Android. iPhone and iPad support is “coming soon”.

Offline?

The fate of Google Docs

Perhaps you are thinking,

This seems so similar to Google Docs!

I was too. Apparently that was by intent, as word has it that Google Drive will replace Google Docs for all users:

Precisely because Drive is just Docs with a new logo, Docs is being phased out. The site still works for now and will continue to work for months, but Google is pushing users away from the Docs URL and app and towards Drive.

I had noticed Docs was prompting me to try Drive recently. I suspect this was the reason. The URL will change from http://docs.gooogle.com to http://drive.google.com. The final changeover date has not been announced.

Orkut is the ORIGINAL Google social network

TechCrunch seems perturbed by Google’s decision to maintain Orkut as a distinct entity from Google Plus. I think that Google is correct to do so.

Orkut is Google’s most successful social network. It would be fair to say that Orkut is the most successful global online community, EVER. It has been in existence for nearly a decade. That is no minor achievement, in a web time frame of reference! Orkut actually grew its user base in Brazil during 2011.

Orkut users by country 2011

Orkut remains the second most popular social network in India. I recall reading an official Google blog post last year, tallying over 65 million ACTIVE Orkut users, primarily in Brazil, India, Pakistan and Portugal. There doesn’t seem to be any reason to merge Orkut into Google Plus.

Orkut status April 2014

The future of Orkut appears less certain now, nearly two years later. The Orkut developer page,

https://code.google.com/intl/en-US/apis/orkut 

returns a generic Google HTTP error 404 page not found.

Equally ominous: The Orkut advertising inquiries page also returns an error. Advertising is the number one priority!

The Google Labs story continues

Green is the new blue for Code Labs

According to this comprehensive listing via Google Code, Google Code Labs projects will be associated with a green bar, not light blue. Google Labs that have graduated to full products will have the usual light blue bar:

Instead of the blue page elements that you see on most Google Code pages, Labs products use green. For example, see the title bar above that says “Google Code Labs.” For Labs products, you’ll also notice “(Labs)” in the title bar, next to the product name.

The other way of denoting a Google Labs project is more pleasing to me, and endearing:

Instead of the typical Google Code logo, Labs products have one with a conical flask as the “L”.  We’re admittedly fond of conical flasks so they may show up in other places as well.

I am fond of Erlenmeyer flasks too.

Google Labs is being discontinued

Which Google Labs projects will be discontinued and which will remain? Unknown.

Google Swiffy — click to view full size

There will be some survivors, despite the demise of Google Labs announcement several weeks ago. For example, reCAPTCHA is a Google Labs project , but is unlikely to go away! Nor is the Google Prediction API.

Google also indicated that Google Swiffy, the HTML to Flash content converter project, will continue as a Google Labs project, although perhaps in a different location. See image for further details.

UPDATE

Two days ago, Search Engine Land featured a comprehensive post about Google Labs projects status. Some projects will live on, others will not.  A few of the more noteworthy decisions were that Google Correlate will survive. Say farewell to Google Sets and Google Squared though.

UPDATE 2

This is a shock. Straight from the REAL GooglePlex was this sad announcement on 2 September 2011. The following much-loved favorites, at least by me, and profiled in the past here, are closing down:

• Aardvark
• Sidewiki
• Fast Flip
• Desktop
• Google Maps API for Flash
• Google Web Security Does this mean the end of pen test app Gruyère?
• Notebook
• Subscribed links

Google Health and Google Power Meter were discontinued too. The announcement about Google Health and Power Meter was made separately, in June 2011. Google Fiber was not affected.

Still alive!

Fate of Experiments?

I do not know how this will impact Google Experimental Search.

Although the image denotes it as part of Google Labs, the URL is www.google.com/experimental/ a sub-domain of Google, rather than the Google Labs URL of  googlelabs.com. The official description implies to me that it is a search-specific feature:

Google is always experimenting with new features aimed at improving the search experience. Take one for a spin and let us know what you think. Join an experiment and you’ll see that feature whenever you do a Google search.