google drive

Anyone who has ever had to send enormous files across the Internet has a new option. Google announced today that it has integrated Google Drive with Gmail, allowing users of both services to insert files from Drive directly into their messages.

Notably, file sizes can be up to 10GB, or 400 times larger than is allowed in a traditional attachment.

The team also built some "smart assistant" technology into the feature to make sure recipients of your shared files have the necessary permissions. Product manager Phil Sharp explains in a blog post:

Tons of options exist for which cloud storage service to choose from. You've got Google Drive, Box, SugarSync, DropBox, Apple's iCloud, and more. A new report by tech support site FixYa, which sourced data from its 25 million users, studies which service best fits different customers' needs.

For starters, DropBox and Box users have security concerns as well as complaints of lagging response time, according to FixYa. This isn't a huge surprise considering DropBox was hacked in July and hundreds of users were sent spam e-mails about online casinos and gambling sites. However, users also say they … Read more

Say goodbye to Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations. Say hello to Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Google quietly renamed its Google Drive applications today while releasing them as standalone apps inside the Chrome Web Store.

Once users install them, they will be available as shortcuts every time they open a new tab in Chrome.

They're also coming to Chromebooks. In a few weeks, Google says, Docs, Sheets, and Slides will appear in Chromebook users' app list by default.

They aren't the only new Web apps available in the Chrome Web Store. Google also has released apps for Drawings, Forms, Google Apps Script, … Read more

Google is taking another tentative step into personal search, creating a new field trial today for users who want to search across a range of Google products from a single search box.

In August the company created a trial bringing Gmail results to Google searches. Today's trial brings other Google services back to Gmail.

Participants in the trial will first notice a kind of instant-search feel to Gmail search results, as relevant e-mails will begin popping up in the search bar as soon as users start typing. And it won't only be e-mail: The trial lets users search … Read more

The Google Drive app lets you view and store files, spreadsheets, and videos, with 5GB of storage space for free, and more if you're willing to pay a subscription fee. The app only requires that you log in to your Google account to quickly access files and media stored on your Google Drive.

Upon launch, the app gives you a list of items to let you quickly get to files on My Drive, files shared with you, files you have "starred," recently opened files, and those you have made available offline. In my testing I opened and … Read more

Google has updated its Drive mobile apps for iOS and Android, which could help out users who want to use the cloud storage service for getting work done while on-the-go.

The bulk of today's updates are geared toward iOS devices, as Google continues to build up support for the top two leading mobile operating systems.

Specifically, iPhone and iPad users can now create and edit Google documents directly in the Drive app. Furthermore, these users can see others' edits in real-time.

Other iOS-centric updates are focused on Google presentations, which now includes speaker notes, full-screen mode and the ability … Read more

Run a quick search for "notepad" on Google Play, and you'll see that there are at least 1,000 apps claiming to fit the bill. The good news is, we've taken the time to show you a few notepads that are absolute must-haves, especially for students just getting back into the groove of school.

Evernote (free) These days, the all-powerful Evernote feels more like a platform than a single, independent app. It has a full menu of companion downloads like Skitch, Evernote Food, and Evernote Hello available, and tons of developers are racing to integrate its … Read more

Twice in the last month I had to become reacquainted with Microsoft Office because a company I was working with required a genuine Office file. Both experiences made me appreciate Google Drive's simple, straightforward apps all over again.

Yes, there are tasks Google Drive's word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program can't handle well or at all, but for 99.9 percent of the files I work on, Google Drive fits the bill nicely. Here are five ways to use Google Drive to shave minutes off your workday.

Keyboard shortcut opens a list of keyboard shortcuts After a … Read more