Hands on with Google Drive

24.04.2012
Start your engines: Google’s Drive service is and ready for a test… well, drive. The search giant’s answer to services like , Drive offers 5GB of free online storage space that also syncs with a local folder on the desktop of your Mac or PC. (An Android app is currently available, with an iOS app in the works.)

So what’s different about Google Drive? What’s the same? Should Dropbox be worried? I decided to investigate these questions and a few others by going hands-on with the service.

Like Dropbox, I found Google Drive fairly simple to set up—and surprisingly, you can enable it from either a regular Google account or a Google Apps business account without too much fuss.

To sign up, you need only to head to , click Go to Google Drive, and agree to the company’s terms and conditions. Google will then check your computer’s operating system and prompt you to download a copy of the Drive software for your Mac or PC.

Google’s service installs by dropping a Google Drive folder in your user folder and a menulet in your menu bar, much like Dropbox does. The app’s preferences allow you to unlink your account, expand your storage beyond 5GB, selectively sync folders, sync files from Google Docs, launch Google Drive on startup, and send the company crash reports and usage statistics.