Third-Party Apps, More Visible in Google Drive

Google Drive updated the "create" menu. Now third-party apps are placed next to Google's apps and are easier to find. There's also a new option to "connect new apps" that displays the list of Google Drive apps (there are more than 100 applications). It's still an iframe for the Chrome Web Store collection, but you no longer have to open a new page to find an app. Another advantage is that you can filter the apps by category and restrict the search results to Google Drive apps. I've always found it weird that the Google Drive apps are listed in the Chrome Web Store, even though they don't require Chrome.

"The Google Drive Create menu now elevates Drive-connected apps to the same level as Google apps such as Docs and Sheets. This makes Drive-connected apps easier to reach and more visible to Google Drive users," informs Google.

There are apps for editing photos and videos, for creating web pages, for editing music, for merging PDF files, signing documents, faxing documents, creating whiteboards, diagrams, invoices and even designing t-shirts.

The Old Image Search, Still Available

The old Google Image Search interface is still available in the OneBox result that's displayed for some Google searches like [tropical birds] or [europe map]. If you add "image", "images", "photo" or "photos" to your query, Google will show 4 times more image results. It's like a simplified image search interface inside the regular Google Search.

Google Drive Site Hosting

You can now create sites in Google Drive, but it's just a nice trick, not a full-fledged feature. To get started, create a new folder, right-click the folder and use the "share" feature to make the folder public. All the files of the site you want to create will be placed inside this folder.

Unfortunately, you can't create the HTML, JS and CSS files in Google Drive using the default apps, so you need install a third-party app like Drive Notepad, Neutron Drive or create these files using a native text editor or HTML editor. Make sure you have all the required files, including a file named index.html. When you upload the files to the folder you've just created, disable the conversion option.

Click the index.html file and then click the "Preview" button to see a live version of your homepage. The files are hosted at googledrive.com and have long URLs you can't customize. Here's an example.

Another downside is that you can create multiple files that have the same name, so a new version of the index.html file doesn't replace the existing file, but it adds a new file. You can always use the "manage revisions" option, but it would be nice have a traditional folder feature. For now, it's a good idea to use the Google Sync apps.

{ Thanks, Michael. }