Google Holy Family University

Transcription

1 Google Holy Family University A Hard Drive in the Cloud. Access & share anything everywhere Google Docs has been retired and replaced by Drive. And if you are familiar with Google Docs, Google Drive will look and act very familiar. Create files, collections (folders), use the top bar to search, and upload files by dragging and dropping into the browser window. But, it adds value beyond Docs by helping you to manage your entire drive from your desktop by installing the free Google Drive app available for download at the Google Drive website ( ) An introductory video (screencast) was created for to show you Google Drive in action on a real Holy Family University account. Click Here to View the Video Once you log into your Google Account, the Drive available everywhere you are on the web, in your home, at the office and on the go. So wherever you are, your stuff is there. Ready to go, ready to share. Google Drive allows you to store, access, and share your files from most Internet connected devices including computers, tablets, and smartphones. Google Drive is available for: PC and Mac Chrome OS iphone and ipad Android devices (phones, tablets) You get 5GB of free storage, the ability to view and store dozens of file types, and integration with other Google services, like Google+ and Gmail. Your Google docs do not count against your storage! Files converted to Google docs can be viewed and edited. Those not in that doc format can only be viewed using your Drive account. Windows and Mac computers can install the Google Drive account which includes more tools or apps developed by Google and other developers that can be used with your Google Drive. If you run the free Google Drive application, then you get a folder on your computer (Windows or OSX) that looks just like a directory on your hard disk that you can drag your files in to. Anything stored in that folder is kept on your hard disk and also copied to

2 your account in the cloud. You can access those files from drive.google.com or from other computers, including mobile devices. While you can see documents created or shared with you using the Google Docs tools in your Google Drive on your computers, the data in those files is not stored or copied to your computers. Rather, what you see in your Google Drive are links to your files. If you open one, it'll open in the browser-based Google app. Files that you drag into your Drive from your hard disk are actually copied to the cloud. They're also synchronized to your other computers that use Google Drive. Synchronization (Sync) Definition: Sync refers to the process of sharing files between 2 or more storage locations. When you use a synchronizing storage product, like Google Drive, any file you put in the drive, and anything you change that's stored in the drive, is automatically updated not just in the cloud, but on all other devices that you have connected to the Drive. So you can start working on a file on one computer, close it, and then open it on a second computer, and what you'll see is the version you closed on the first one. Sync Warning There is a potential danger when using synchronization: If you update a file before your cloud service has sent you the latest version, you can end up with collisions or version conflicts. Most cloud storage services will flag conflicts with file name or extension changes, but untangling conflicting files is never fun. Files accessed directly from cloudbased services, like Google Docs, don't suffer from this problem, since changes are made directly on the Web version of the file. File and Folder Options Yes. Within file size and space limits, anything you can store on your hard drive can also be stored in a cloud drive. You can also move entire folders in your Google Drive. What you can't do with Google Drive -- that you can with some other services -- is sync files or folders in place. With Google Drive, if you want to sync a file that's buried in a folder on your hard drive, but you don't want to move it to your Google Drive, you can't. You have to drag it to the Google Drive. Other services, like Microsoft Live Mesh, SugarSync, Wuala, and Cubby let you sync files or folders without moving them. Sharing Files with a Cloud Drive (alternative to ing) ing files around for review among coworkers is the old way to share data, but with cloud storage, now all you have to do is a link to a file stored on your Drive. All the services let you mark a file or folder for sharing and then invite people to view or download it.

3 Sharing Warning: If you're going to be asking people to comment on or update a file, you can run into versioning problems. For that purpose, you do not want people working on the file at the same time. However, iin-place online editing products like Google Docs are better for real-time collaboration. Free; but, for a few dollars more Google will give you 5GB of completely free storage, which is pretty useful for storing files to use across computers, or to share, or that you need to access on your mobile device. But if you want to store large archives of photos or videos, you can pay for more storage. 25GB is $2.49 a month; 100GB is $4.99 a month. There are plans all the way to a ridiculous 16 terabytes of storage. File Privacy Under the heading, Your Content in our Services in Google's terms of service, Google states, "You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours." That means that Google can't use your content for commercial purposes without your consent. However, the TOS also states that, "you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones." For content that is yours, Google can't re-use it for its own purposes. But it can use content you upload in order to serve you. This can include integrating services together (like reading your scanned pictures in order to OCR them), and it can include analyzing your files to target advertisements to you. Google already does this in GMail. Google doesn't currently serve ads in Google Docs (now called Google Drive), but it may, according to its license agreement, use data about the content you upload to target ads to you anywhere on the service. Features Missing from Google Drive Google only lets you synchronize files and folders placed in the Google Drive folder. The ios apps aren't out yet and there's no news of versions for Windows Phones or BlackBerry. (Versions for Linux and for the Chrome OS that's on the Chromebooks are in the works, though.) Google Drive doesn't copy your Google Docs data to your computer, so you cannot access those files when offline. File Safety Google Drive encrypts data between your computer and the Google servers. If you're using your Drive over the Web, the connection defaults to secure (HTTPS), and when you use the software that makes your Google Drive appear on your computer like a local hard drive, the data between your computer and Google is likewise encrypted. No casual hacker will be able to grab your files by monitoring or intercepting your Internet connection to Google.

4 Your data is stored under lock and key at Google itself, but it is not encrypted on the Google servers. A Google rep explained why to me: Encrypting files stored at Google would prevent you from previewing them on the Web, and it would also prevent services like Google Goggles and its OCR engine from accessing files on your behalf. (I presume it would also prevent Google's ad-serving algorithms from scanning your data to serve you more targeted messages -- and this is how Google makes its money.) Google Drive As a Backup Service Google Drive pricing for data storage is attractive, which may make it a good offline backup solution: For $9.99 a month, for example, you get 200GB of storage. But if you're going to use a cloud drive for backup, you need to be sure that it does more than just act as a virtual hard drive. Backup systems have to keep files that you mistakenly delete; you might want to be sure they keep older versions of your files as well. Google Drive does keep versions of files going back 30 days (more if you get into preferences) and keeps a trash folder for deleted files. So it can be used for backing up data. It's not a full all-system backup solution like Time Machine, but it's actually more forgiving of user error when it comes to file storage than the file systems built in to Windows or OS X. Step-by-Step Google Drive Basic Procedures 1) Log into your Google account just as you do for your account. That provides access to all of the tools included in your Google Account. 2) Click on the Drive command at the top of your screen. If that command is not visible, click the More command. A drop-down list will appear showing other Google tools like Drive. 3) Click the Upload files or folders icon to your Drive account. 4) Locate the specific files or folders that you need. They may be on your computer s hard drive, USB drive, DVD, ETC. 5) Click on the desired file(s) or folder, and click the Open command. All of those files will uploaded with progress displayed at the lower right corner of your screen.

5 6) Now those files will be available from most anywhere that you can log into your Google account including Windows and Mac computers, tablet, or smartphones.