Basically, if someone wants to get at your files, they're going to have to work very hard to get them.įiles and folder sharing tools are quite specific and difficult to get confused, as you can see at all times who has access to what. Generally, Google has a decent record with security, and offers various levels of two-factor authentication ( 2FA) (opens in new tab), with numerous checks to catch unauthorized account access should it occur. (Image credit: Future) Google Drive securityĭrive stores files and transfers them using encryption, but take note that it's not end-to-end encryption, which means that Google can see your files, if it wants to.
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For Windows and macOS, along with accessing Google Drive through a browser and uploading files there, you can also download the Backup and Sync tool (opens in new tab) which lets you sync your Google Drive locally, analogous to Dropbox (opens in new tab), as well as upload files to the web from other commonly used folders.
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In the mobile apps for Android and iOS, files can be instantly accessed with an interface design that very closely mirrors that on the web, with no need to swap between different mindsets as you change devices. The view we particularly like is ‘Recent,’ which is essentially just a list of files in reverse chronological order, and works well enough in most cases. Google indicates that Drive has AI processing that brings documents and shares you're likely to want next up to the top of the file list, but we found this somewhat hit and miss overall, but it's easy enough to sort through the folders you've created or search more specifically. We find it very straightforward, once you get past that everything is working inside a browser instead of a more conventional file system. You can make use of a thumbnail view, or a more conventional list view on the main web interface, and files can be shifted around via drag-and-drop just as if you were using a regular desktop app. Google Drive applies its Optical Character Recognition (OCR) automatically to PDFs (opens in new tab) and images, which allows you to search through the text they contain as if they were any other document.įiles can be easily copied, moved, starred, and arranged as you like. What the Google Drive interface lacks in sophistication it more than makes up for with intuitiveness and speed as finding files is quick and simple, whether you're searching for keywords and file types from the top search bar, or browsing through folders and shares from the navigation bar on the left. (Image credit: Future) Google Drive interfaceĮvery Google app has a familiar interface with lots of white space, a dash of color, and bold graphics.
If you don't want to convert Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, you can just store them in Google Drive instead, syncing them between computers and devices as needed. There is integrated access to Docs (opens in new tab), Sheets (opens in new tab) and Slides (opens in new tab), each of them a slick web app that are mature and polished, and which can now genuinely compete with the dominate player, Microsoft Office (opens in new tab) (they do an admirable job of converting Office files into the Google Drive equivalents too). There are thoughtful touches as well, like the way each Team Drive can be themed differently, or the feature to email all the members of a Team Drive in one shot. Managing access to Team Drives is simple, with the ability to see who can (and can't) get to and edit the files. The Team Drives component is really well done, although it is only available on the Business and Enterprise plans, with customized spaces where groups of colleagues can work together on files and folders collaboratively.
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