Google Set To Meld Google Drive With Chrome OS

MikeatWired writes "Google will tightly integrate its new Google Drive online storage service with an upcoming version of its Chrome OS operating system, says Sundar Pichai, who oversees development of the company's Chrome products as well as its Google Apps online services. Chrome OS is Google's effort to move all applications and data onto the web (and its Chrome browser), but the OS still hasn't mastered the art of moving files from place to place. By integrating Chrome OS with Google Drive — the online storage service Google introduced on Tuesday — the company seeks to correct this problem. 'With Chromebooks, [Google Drive] is even more powerful,' Pichai says, 'because it just starts working naturally. Your local drive is also Google Drive. This makes it really powerful because you just don't think about it.' Basically, Google Drive — a service that operates on the web — will perform as if it was the local file system. If you open the 'save file' dialog box on Chrome OS, for instance, the system will take you straight to Google Drive. 'We'll effectively integrate [Google] Drive into the native file system of Chrome OS,' says Scott Johnson, Google's Google Drive product manager. 'All the core OS functionality will use [Google] Drive as a place to store data — if that's what you opt in to.'"

Comments

So they can own and track ALL your files?

[recoiledsnake]

From http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/how-far-do-google-drives-terms-go-in-owning-your-files/75228

Google Drive terms:

“Your Content in our Services: When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide licence to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content

Dropbox's and Skydrive's terms are more sane.

Re:So they can own and track ALL your files?

[Anonymous Coward]

They have to have those permissions for things like OCR and image search to work. If you really think their goal is to steal it, then I think you are a bit misinformed.

Re:So they can own and track ALL your files?

[TechNY]

Please submit me all of your personal files, tax returns, pictures of ex girlfriends and open your webcam. This is so that I can program my OCR to work better. Promise!

Re:So they can own and track ALL your files?

[Danzigism]

Unless of course, it infringes upon your own intellectual copyright.

Re:So they can own and track ALL your files?

[Anonymous Coward]

Way to cherry-pick. Quite literally, the very next sentence in the ToS reads:

"The rights that you grant in this licence are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This licence continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing that you have added to Google Maps)."

What's even worse is this was the very next sentence in the article you quoted from.

Dishonest much?

Re:So they can own and track ALL your files?

[toddmbloom]

Either way, storing your data with GOOGLE is just asking for trouble. When have they ever done anything that's good for the consumer and not good for their advertising bottom line?

Re:So they can own and track ALL your files?

[yincrash]

The TOS is for all Google services. It limits itself with a clause that follows that the GP decided to omit.

The rights that you grant in this licence are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This licence continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing that you have added to Google Maps).”

As well as this clause:

Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

The performance clause is almost certainly for other services besides Google Drive like YouTube.

Re:So they can own and track ALL your files?

[rtfa-troll]

Because their standard license (which is what this is) also covers youtube, etc.

If Google goes bankrupt, then this license may end up being the only thing protecting your data. I don't think that they are doing this maliciously and I do think that if enough people protest that will fix it, but I don't think it should just be dismissed by saying "oh; they promised not to be evil". If you think Google can't go bankrupt, please remember that five years ago Microsoft also looked completely invulnerable. Almost nobody could imagine them not being dominant in personal computing. Things like iOS and Android turn up and suddenly they look like DEC dealing with the arrival of the Microprocessor. In ten years time the same could easily happen to Google.

It is powerful, you don't think about it

[Schiphol]

"This makes it really powerful because you just don't think about it". This is a pretty good summary of the way in which companies such as Google make their profit. These days, it is quite essential to "think about it".

Re:still hasn't mastered the art of moving files

[fustakrakich]

'Windows cannot copy this file because another program is using it.'

Only you gotta guess which one muddafukka, or cancel the whole job and start over. If the damn thing has difficulty with one file, why can't it continue to copy all the others?

File management across all the filesystems is quite the mystery, and very archaic and primitive, needlessly thrashing the drive. So many simple options are completely absent.

And on top of that, some humorless twit calls me a troll.. Well!

A better idea

[DrXym]

Dump chrome OS. Nobody cares about it. Fold the best bits into Android and bury the rest.