The new Google Docs and Drive UI starts rolling out today | Hacker News Reader

The new Google Docs and Drive UI starts rolling out today

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28 pointsmfiguiere19 comments

Whenever they say a UI is “simplified”, we now all know that it means features for serious users have been eliminated.

Google Drive was already getting maddeningly unusable. E.G., you can search for a file but then it’s nie impossible to find what folder it’s in. I’ve begun migrating all my remote file storage to iCloud, and know that gmail is probably next.

Genuine question: do you really need to put things in folders in google drive given how good their search engine is?

This can be a way to lock users in, as it’s probably more painful to migrate thousands of unorganized files to a new platform.

It’s basically lock-in through search performance.

If you're looking for a file, or a bunch of files, but you only remember the name of a different file in the directory... then absolutely, yes.

This is my usual case. I recall it have some snippet that I’ll use as a “key” to find the larger project it was part of.

I don't use Google Drive, but I can tell you that, for my use case, folders are useful for keeping notes, spreadsheets, and other resources for each project separate from each other. Search and Stars won't be adequate replacement for folders.

I’ve got quarterly reports going back years with a folder for each quarter. The file contents are so similar that searching for a specific quarter would just bring them all up. Much quicker to drill down by folder.

Not the same person, but for me, it's vital. I use my filesystem like a librarian uses a catalog, I don't want to lose that metadata and lump all my files in the same bag but with tags and searches. I know exactly where everything is.

I mean, give me directory tree, and a search field with tags, and I'm much more likely to find what I need faster with the former.

If you mount it on your regular machine then it's kind of necessary.

This isn't meant to be a dig at you, but iCloud seems like an interesting choice for someone who cares about visible folder structures, given that Apple led the pack on hiding files and folders from their users. I'd be curious to know whether you evaluated a bunch of alternatives or settled on iCloud because you already had an account and it was just an easy choice.

Disclaimer: I would definitely say I have a personal bias against Apple.

With iCloud Drive, you can view your files in the normal finder, including the folder structure. You can do so in Windows explorer too, if you install iCloud in Windows.

The only thing keeping me from moving over to iCloud is the linux support. I can use Google drive using rclone. I wish I could mount iCloud Drive in Linux as well.

Which one doesn't support syncing locally?

> With iCloud Drive, you can view your files in the normal finder, including the folder structure.

Is that any different from https://www.google.com/drive/download/, which mounts the files under /Volumes/GoogleDrive?

You search for the file, and either:

1. Right-click + choose "show file location" to open the folder, or

2. Left-click on the file and look at the breadcrumb trail at the bottom of the window

Not only is it not impossible, but I don't know how it could be any more straightforward.

I don’t have time now, but I believe this is not possible on mobile, which was why I needed at the time.

You click the 3 dot menu, and then 'Details', which also gives you a direct link to the folder

What I imagine is happening right now at Google: "Shit shit, layoff is coming, time to push the 60th redesign of the UI with its blog post to show that we are important people"...

This incredibly myopic take is also incredibly optimistic about how long it takes to land a holistic design overhaul on a product of any meaningful size—much less several in a suite of tools of this scale. Heck, Microsoft has done many more such design overhauls and their apparently permanent incompleteness has been a running joke for almost 30 years.

I skimmed the article to see if they mentioned whether this change involves their big change that they announced last year (I think?), where they're moving away from html/css rendering to a completely custom UI engine, presumably in webgl or something. Anyone know whether that change has already taken into effect?

Users, even the garden variety, at best tolerate changes in UI and at worst contemplate leaving. Every Facebook change is accompanied by users bitching. Reddit is full of people refusing the redesign. Nobody has ever liked a youtube change. Literally no product ever benefits from doing this. Now look at craigslist with its 90s brutalist webdesign. Straight to business, no bullshit. Nobody ever bitches about the design of craigslist, and if they changed the design nobody would be happy about it. Anyone who suggests a UI overhaul almost certainly doesn't understand the product or the customers.

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