Wednesday, 28 November 2012 20:31

Better connections between Gmail and Drive

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It looks like Google will be improving on the connection between two of their prime services; Gmail and Google Drive. Although it is not a revolutionary feature it makes it easier to use Gmail, or send a (large) file via e-mail. The files from Drive can be sent as "attachments" e-mail (not actually a word about attachments, but the links to the files on the Drive), access to files from Google Drive in the future will be available in Gmail via special buttons “Insert files using Drive.” The mentioned button should appear in the interface of Gmail over the next few days.

Unfortunately, this option will only be available through a new framework for writing messages so the question is whether Google is trying to persuade users to use this new framework, instead of traditional ways of writing messages. This could have a boomerang effect if they decide to neglect the other option.

Although seemingly a little thing, the button could increase the use of the Drive for Gmail users, because they will basically have an easy method for uploading files while keeping them on the Drive, and share them with others if they wish, instead of taking the "Copy Public Link" and similar options by competitors like Dropbox and then pasting the links inside the e-mail messages. The allowed attachments will be up to 10GB.

[Ed – Although this is a needed feature we have been hearing horror stories about Google’s drive. This includes formatting being stripped from different documents (especially Excel). We have to wonder if this is a reaction to Office 365 and the SkyDrive integration that Microsoft has to offer. If it is, then it is not likely to bring in new users and perhaps not good enough to keep some that are looking to leave.]

What do you think of Google’s new integrated feature? Tell us in our Forum

Read 2929 times Last modified on Wednesday, 28 November 2012 20:41

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