The man behind Google Docs is now trying to reinvent the web app at Box | Hacker News Reader

The man behind Google Docs is now trying to reinvent the web app at Box

gigaom.com

41 pointsiProject21 comments

I don't like the "man behind" framing we often see. As if monumental projects are ever the creation of an individual. Sure individuals are critical, but we need to keep in perspective the significant teams behind achievements, and acknowledge "key contributors" as such.

The guy was the co-founder of writely. What more does he have to do to be the man behind his company. Surely, we can allow professional writing to be hyperbolic and still know what the author means, instead of taking everything literally.

I agree. It would be nice to know his exact contribution.

Much less than this article implies.

Example of the fundamental attribution error. After first learning about it - I find that single factor attribution errors are endemic throughout society.

Humans like having relatable protagonists in their stories.

I never quite got Box. Why would one use Box over Dropbox with it's native Finder/Explorer integration and ability to use 1Password.

EDIT: If Box came out with Finder/Explorer integration, I would strongly consider switching.

And thanks for the comments pointing out the administrative controls.

Somewhat unrelated, but I can get why people use Spideroak as opposed to Dropbox, the encryption/security features.

We use Box because when it came time to purchase cloud storage Dropbox did not have a solution for teams or small businesses yet

I prefer Dropbox, it's much faster, but the headache of migrating has made us put off switching over

Box is mainly focused on enterprises (rather than private users) that needed much more fine grained access control such uploader only, previewer only, etc.

when i needed a place to drop files to move them between people or connected devices, i saw dropbox and it's joke of a security, and box.net, i went with box.net.

dropbox sounded like amateur hour all around.

But this bloat on the android app and the site (from one to 3 to 4 clicks to download a file i'm seeing in the list!) i'm considering the next choice.

Probably because of this: https://www.box.com/business/features/

Box has a sync desktop client that integrates with Finder and Explorer.

Sarbanes-oxley compliance and the ability for administrators to snoop on you and stuff like that, probably.

Etherpad does the job I need as far as docs are concerned http://etherpad.org

Good. The Box web app really could use some work.

non sense! the box app is perfect. more than perfect if you have a rooted android.

treat files as files. not as things that must be opened by a program (or... apps).

now they are making their app bloated and useless.

Their previous approach, to have a data api and recommend apps "to who may need" to edit files in place or something, was the right thing to do.

now they will have a bloated app, that will be crushed in functionality by google drive (gdocs) when they could be the king of sane file management in the cloud while also fostering innovation of new editors, heck there was a guy in xpda forums trying to hook his image editor to box.net. that will probably go south now.

I think you misread: the grandparent is talking abouthe box web aapp, not the native one.

I loved Writely! It was incredible...

To me Google Docs did reinvent the webapp. It's by far the most advanced webapp I'm using and I'm using it daily: personal finance, tax filings, letters, etc.

What scares me a bit is to read that the Google Docs team is made of 600 people if I understand TFA correctly.

This is setting the bar quite high to anyone startup that'd want to reinvent the Web (not talking about Box here but startups in general). How can you "fight" against 600 geniuses at Google?

We also thought in 2006 that the entry ticket on a certain market was way too high for startups. And boom Facebook appeared.

We also thought in 2008 that the entry ticket on a certain market was way too high for startups. And boom Dropbox appeared.

So, OK, I understand your point but I'm always impressed by what a bunch of people in their garage (or accelerator) can achieve.

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