googledrive_logoGoogle has announced a series of improvements for Google Drive for mobile platforms in the Google Drive blog, with both iOS and Android benefiting, but Android getting most of the love. With David Rothman committed to Dropbox, it might be worth seeing if the new features are enough to change anyone’s e-book and other file storage preferences.

For one thing, Google Drive has moved from file sharing notifications via email to direct mobile notifications. “Starting today, you’ll receive mobile notifications to alert you immediately when files or folders are shared with you and a single tap can take you right to them.” Also, when sharing files on Google Drive via links, now “the Drive for Android app lets recipients request access with a single tap. And on Android and iOS, file owners will be notified of the request instantly so they can quickly grant access.” Finally, Android users can now preview files without a Google Account. “Until now, you needed a Google Account to view shared files on your Android device. Now, you can do this without a Google Account just like on the web.”

File sharing of e-books may be a concern to some, but of course there are many scenarios where public domain e-book files can be legitimately shared. I’ve certainly a whole library of e-books backed up to Google Drive that I might want to share with others. How about you all? Are these improvements of any value?

1 COMMENT

  1. If Google Drive was fixed and didn’t destroy Calibre libraries I might use it. Google Drive renames files that have numbers in parentheses so it affects more than just Calibre. The problem was reported in 2012 so it’s not likely to be fixed.

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