Google Drive Launches

Google launched Drive in April 2012 with 5 GB of free storage and tight integration with Google Docs. The service entered a market already shaped by Dropbox but connected file storage directly to Google’s browser-based productivity tools.

A synchronization service has to maintain consistent file state across multiple computers while dealing with offline edits, partial transfers, renames, and network failures. Drive also stored Google-native documents differently from ordinary files because those documents were edited collaboratively on Google’s servers.

The launch helped normalize the idea that a user’s working directory could exist simultaneously on local devices and in the cloud. File synchronization became an expected operating-system feature rather than a specialist backup tool.