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Comment by fjabre | Hacker News Reader

Dropbox was mentioned 3 times so far in the comments but it does not seem that Google is going to release a windows client that would offer the same functionality..

Still it's an interesting development. Maybe dropbox could respond with adding support for google docs syncing if the API allows?

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I don't think Google would release any non-Web clients. Just look at the sorrow state of Google Talk.

It's would most likely to be a browser plugin based on Gears or HTL5

If there is a simple google api, some third party / open source developer, not having to worry about the backend infrastructure required, might create a client app to do this, which would compete with dropbox to some degree.

True. Until Google decides to code and release their client app, at which point Google will be in direct competition with Dropbox, and any third-party client to Google doc storage would be at a great disadvantage. I would guess that based on the adoption rate, a Google client app is not far into the future.

I think we should look to history to find any clues if Google would release an actual client that would be on par with the dropbox model.

They are notoriously reticent to do anything that installs on a client machine, Chrome being an obvious exception. I'm still skeptical they would release a client but it's definitely within the realm of possibility.

It may be more likely that either dropbox or other 3rd party tools will get into the game and start integrating their offerings with this.

They've had software installing on a client machine after acquisitions though - SketchUp, Picasa and Google Earth.

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