Google Drive Is Fine and That Doesn't Matter

And that's just software companies. Legions of hardware makers now toss sophisticated sharing, storage and content tools into their machinery. Cisco(CSCO) , HP(HPQ) , Lexmark(LXK) and Xerox(XRX) , just to name a few, now have content storage and exchange services built into their devices as a gimme to drive sales of routers, servers and printers.

Want to get a feel for the utter endlessness of the storage and sync world? Try this industry map a fellow named Robin Good cooked up. It graphically lays out all the collaboration tools he could find. I stopped counting after 200 companies, and this is by no means a complete list. Each and every one of these offers at least some form of content syncing, collaboration or file storage, or it would be dead easy for them to quickly add the features they don't have now.

Not a moat in sight
Google Drives over the edge.

Google Drive is a reasonable file sharing and syncing service. 5 GB of storage is generous -- you can even get 16 terabytes of storage if you desire; it can sync most any file across PCs, Macs and mobile devices; and Google Apps users will find it handy, if a bit of a pain to migrate too.

But it won't matter. No matter how clever Google Drive is, there is nothing to stop any digital Tom, Dick or Harry from setting up a competitive syncing and sharing service. And that, friends, means syncing and sharing will eventually devolve into a free, profit-starved service.

Google Drive, Dropbox and all the rest are nothing more than vortices spinning in a draining tub. Fascinating to look at, fun to put your finger in the middle of. But in the end, nothing of substance drives the action.

If that all seems terribly skeptical, well, that's me, The Digital Skeptic. (Trademark.)