Misusing Gmail

A couple of days ago, I read about Gmail Drive from this site. There weren’t a lot of info on what goods and bads of this extension, but I gave it a try anyways. Installing Gmail Drive will create a virtual drive in your My Computer, as seen above. Your sending and retrieving PCs should both be installed with this extension in order to make full use of it. I installed one at my workplace, and by clicking on it, a log in screen will pop up.

You can begin to save your files by just using Drag and Drop. I tried to save a big file. This is when i found out the Gmail 10Mb rule still applies here. You can’t save a file bigger than that. Tho, zipping it up might help.

It takes a pretty long time to save an 8mb file. (originally 15mb before zip) I had time to go to the ladies and make a cup of coffee before returning to my seat. This is a bummer and a limitation, it would be great if I could utilisize the 1 Gb size fully with music and video files. That is not to be the case.

The same happens when I tried retrieving the file. It really does take a while, even on a P4 2.6 Machine with Broadband. Forget it if you’re still using Dial-up!

Anyways, the verdict. Use Gmail Drive for fun if you wish. It’s also better to open a separate Gmail account for it, to lessen the messy mails coming in if you’re saving lots of files. Gmail Drive is pretty unneccessary if you’ve got thumbdrive or any other external drives that isn’t full yet. It would come in handy, say you desperately need to save something, but your external drive is so full of rubbish you can’t delete.

Secondly, Gmail Drive isn’t a secure drive! All it needs is one log in throughout the time your computer is on. It won’t log off until you shut down your computer. I presume anyone with the skills of hacking might be able to get into your files since it’s online. For all Geeks, this is a must try. Adds to your conversation topics.