Google Drive is a service provided by Google that provides cloud file storage, file sharing and collaborated editing. Google Drive was launched in April 2012 and to-date, the service provides services to over 240 million users every month.
Cloud Storage
Google under Google Drive provides free space of up to 15GB to its users. This Google cloud storage is also shared among your other Google services including Gmail email storage space, Google+ photos and Google Docs. Google charges a monthly rate for storage space above the 15 GB free quota.
Currently, Google is charging $1.99 for up to 100GB of space and the rate increases progressively to $299.99 for 30TB of storage space. However, Google Docs documents saved under the native Google Docs formats, Google+ photos of below 2048*2048 size and Google+ videos of less than 15 minutes are not included in the storage quota. There are further limitations for specific types of documents such as a limit of 100mb for uploaded presentations and 50GB for files uploaded and converted to Google Docs formats.
Installing Google Drive
Google Drive provides a client software that may be installed on a computer, tablet or phone to enable synchronization of files on the computer or phone with files on Google Drive.
To install this client software,
Step 1 : Go to the Google Drive website – drive.google.com and click on “Download Drive”
Step 2 : On the Download Page, Choose the type of computer (whether PC or Mac)
Step 3 :After reading and agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, download the software
Step 4 : Once the software downloads, go to the location downloaded and open the software. You may get a caution that the software is downloaded from the internet – just click OK.
Step 5 : You will need to impute your Username and Password to the Google Drive to be attached to the installation.
Step 6 : Once you have provided these login details, follow instructions to complete installation
Step 7 : Once the client software is installed, you can now move files from your desktop to the Google cloud storage.
Once installed, the client software needs to be running so as to continually synchronize your PC files with those on your Google Drive.
To download the Google Drive client software to your phone, you can download and install the Google Drive app for iOS or Android.
What to Do With Google Drive:
Besides storing your files on the Google Drive cloud, there are 2 other main services provided by Google Drive;
Sharing – Google Drive allows file owners to share files either to specific persons via their Gmail addresses or by generating a unique URL and sharing the URL to whomsoever the user want to access the file. The file owner may also restrict editing and commenting against his or her shared files. By sharing their files, users are able to edit and build onto a file through collaboration.
Viewing Files on the Internet – Google Drive also allow users to view files online as long as the files are saved in Google Drive online viewable applications. Most applications are viewable online including Microsoft Office applications, most video and image formats, Adobe applications, Autodesk and Autocad, ZIP and RAR archiving formats and text files. Other formats may also be viewable online via third party applications.
Google Drive for Work
As of 2014, Google Drive is also providing a corporate version of the service referred to as “Google Drive for Work”. Under this service, clients get unlimited storage space and other premium services such as file auditing, admin customization options and encryption of data in the cloud space.
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