Category: Google Drive

A new and improved search functionality is coming to Google Drive for G Suite Enterprise customers.  Dubbed “Intelligent Search”, users will be able to not only search for specific files in Drive like you can today, but will be able to search for contributors as well as priorities and histories of files.

As you would guess, the new Intelligent Search is driving by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to more accurately predict the information you are searching for and learn the type of content that you search frequently.

Google Drive is expected to hit a critical milestone this week:  1 Billion active users.  The news came from Google Vice President of Cloud, Diane Green during her keynote at Google Cloud Next in San Francisco.  When Drive does pass the one billion mark, it will make it the 8th Google service or app that has reached the milestone.

Currently the “Billion User Club” consists of the following from Google:

• Google Search
• Google Maps
• Google Play Store
• Android
• Chrome
• Gmail
• YouTube

It is an important milestone for Google Drive but in a broader context, it is critically important for Google.

A new update for G Suite paying customers is rolling out that brings a handful of improvements to the Google Vault feature.  With the update, you will be able to set a custom retention length of time for Hangouts Meet recording as well as be able to set a policy for user’s Drive trash folders.

For those who are not G Suite users or who are unfamiliar with it, Google Vault is your domain’s retention policy manager when you use the service from Google, allowing you to set how long things like emails and files are retained along with Hangouts Meet recordings and search results.

Google One, the Mountain View company’s new all-in-one storage, support and benefits program, is now starting to go live.  Paid subscribers to Google Drive are now getting notifications via email that their account has been converted to a One account and for them, the One app has now lit up too.

One is a central repository of sorts for your Google Drive storage and gives you the ability to share that storage with other members of your family.  It also provides you access to Google support via chat, phone or email and that support is available 24/7.    You can also adjust your drive storage account in the app, change payment methods, manage family members and even shut down your subscription.

Google Jamboard, the whiteboard sharing and collaboration tool, has a new feature rolling out that will be handy for G Suite users who have the device.  You will now be able to see your Jamboard created files in your Google Drive, making it easier to review and to share those files with others.

While the rollout of this new feature will take a few days, once you have it, you will be able to do three key functions within Google Drive with Jamboard files:

• Share jam files directly from Drive.
• Open jam files from Drive in the Jamboard web and mobile applications.
• Search for jam files in Drive (by entering “type:jam” in the Drive search bar).

A new feature is rolling out to all G Suite customers on Google Drive that will show you who shared files with you.  To this point, when you go to the shared with me section of Drive, you see the files that are shared with you and, if you view in list mode, you will see the name of the person sharing it with you.  This works okay-ish but Google has found that one of the most common searches done in Drive is the name of someone who shared a file with you.

Enter in this new feature.  Once deployed, you will have a Quick Access card in the shared with me  section which will feature that person’s name and the files they have shared.