Is Google Drive your content distribution mechanism? Ahem!

You have PDFs, PPTs, video, audio, and yes, tons of Zoom/Meet recordings! Now you want to distribute them to your audience.

Are you distributing through Google Drive?

Then this post may offer you something to think about.

YOUR CONTENT — It is every type, isn’t it?

What does your content look like? May be it is training content meant for trainees? Marketing content for the PR agency? Or product training material? Compliance information? Is it valuable consumer research? Or even all the preparatory information you want to share for a product launch?

It is probably a motley mix of video, audio, PDFs, PPTs and so on.

And so you decided to plonk it into Drive, perhaps? :-)

GOOGLE DRIVE

The best thing about Drive is its immense popularity and ease of access. It has a low entry barrier — you can get started without any payments. But ease of access doesn’t mean ease of use. And popularity sometimes just means there is no viable alternative! :) Here is a lowdown of what Drive does well and doesn’t. TrustRadius has collated some concrete feedback from real users. Allow me to summarize.

TL; DR: A Quick Look

Kitaboo Bytes: A better alternative to Google Drive!

THE GOOD STUFF:

This is the stuff that they do really well, at scale.

• Multiple editing formats — all the Google documentation formats are editable. Very cool!
• Collaborative editing — get the entire team to contribute
• Sharing with the internal team — if they are Google users, add them in
• Smooth link to GMail — of course!
• Link with feedback mechanisms (Forms) — this one is valuable especially in training
• Search — goes without saying. :)

THE PAIN:

They are Google, but they aren’t God. Not yet, anyway. :-) Here is some consistent poor feedback on Google Drive and issues that users just can’t ignore!

• UI and user experience — content management: Some of the most “meh” experiences when it comes to content. Drive’s UI reminds you of the old Windows Explorer experience with folders and sub-folders. Completely out of touch with the times.
• UI and user experience — content delivery: You need to open different apps to view different file types (unless they are Google formats). Or worse, you will need to download the document and view it from your desktop. Doesn’t do much for security.
• Content security: No encryption; no DRM. As long as you are a GMail user, and the content distributor has decided to give you access, you assume users won’t do any mischief with the content. Ahem. People totally don’t forward downloaded content, right? ;-) #sarcasm
• Distribution management: It is easy to share content, but it is incredibly hard to know who has access to what. This gets hairy real fast when you have hierarchies of user permissions and content structures. You may have end up giving permission to an entire folder when you only meant to share a file. It is easy to go wrong unless you are careful.
• Content protection: Public folders can be deleted by anyone! :O
• Restricted to the Google universe: What if you have a non-GMail user? Good luck with that.

ALTERNATIVES:

Do you know of any alternatives to Google Drive? We do!

If you are interested in sharing content securely, and providing a unified and easy content experience, watch this space!

Scoot over to the world of Kitaboo Bytes for a sneak preview. You can try for no cost at all!

Or, if you are really really excited, just write to us: support@kitaboobytes.com.

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