A common trend of many modern software companies is to release a product that is incomplete. The basic concept and functionality is there but the meat is added in subsequent updates. One of the reasons for this is because technology is constantly changing and what works today may not work next week. This release and update model has served Google well, especially with their online storage and collaboration service – Drive. In fact, a number of recent updates have been applied to Drive to make it just that much better.
Here’s an overview of the recent changes made to Google Drive that have helped improve it and make it easier to use by businesses.
Expanded Search
If your company uses Google Drive to store all its documents, it can sometimes become a bit tough to find files. Luckily, Drive has a search bar that functions just like Google Search. Type in the name of the document and similar results will be shown. What happens when you know a colleague sent you an important document though and you can’t remember the name? With a recent update, you can now enter the name of the colleague and view all documents the colleague has shared with you.
The Search feature has also been expanded to include documents that have been moved to the Trash folder. This is good for recovering documents that you’ve accidentally deleted and need to retrieve, but can’t remember the name of.
Drag and drop files into Chrome
If you use Chrome, and have files or a folder on your desktop that you would like to upload to Drive, you can log in to Drive’s website – drive.google.com – and simply drag the folder onto the window where it will be automatically uploaded. If you want to put it within a specific folder on Drive, just navigate to that folder first, then drag and drop.
Create new folders from selecting files
One new feature that should save a bit of time when it comes to managing files and folders is that you now have the ability to select multiple files and create a new folder to contain them.
You can do this by selecting by the files you would like to put into a new folder, right-clicking on any one of the files – it doesn’t matter which, as long as you right-click – and selecting Organize. In the window that opens, select Create new folder. From there, name the folder and press Create. By default, the folder will be added to your My Drive folder.
An easier way to manage storage
If you are an Administrator, you can assign/change how much storage each user gets, through the Domain settings. If you have a lot of users, it can be a bit of a pain to scroll through a list to find the user you’re looking for. With a recent update, you can now search for the user directly from the Domain settings window and either assign or change the amount of storage space they receive.
These are just a few of the recent updates Google has rolled out for Drive. If you use Drive long enough, you’ll notice that Google is constantly updating features of Drive, or introducing new ones, largely to make improvements. If you’re interested in how Drive can help your company, please contact us.
Published on 4th December 2012 by Jeanne DeWitt.
