Google Drive Third-Party Apps: An Introduction

Unfortunately, actually saving data to Google Drive from third-party apps proved to be a challenge in some cases. Both Gantter and the otherwise excellent Pixlr Editor (an image editor) both failed to save files to Google Drive. Discussion in Gantter's Get Satisfaction community support page indicates my experience is not an isolated one.

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Ironically, both these third-party Google Drive apps were able to save to and load from the local hard drive of my Windows 7 notebook PC.

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Name: Google Drive third-party apps
Price: Varies

The ability to install third-party Google Drive apps only requires a supported browser and access to the Internet. This has the potential to be a truly disruptive technology for desktop platform ecosystems like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. However, problems with the basic function of actually saving data to Google Drive by third-party apps need to be addressed before widespread adoption is possible.

Pro:

• App installation does not require access to local storage.
• Apps available on any browser on any desktop or notebook PC.
• Apps appear to be browser independent.

Con:

• Problems saving data to Google Drive by some third-party apps.
• Fee requirements not clear for some products.
• Slow app startup.
• Apps not supported in Android or iOS native mobile browsers.