Data Backup Digest

There will probably be a lot of times in your work life where you will need to work together with other people on the same document. Previously, this might have been a cumbersome task, perhaps involving emailing the file back and forth and waiting for the other person to finish their changes before you can make yours. It was undoubtedly a slower process than it needed to be. Luckily, this no longer has to be a problem for businesses that make use of a cloud storage service like Google Drive.

Google Drive allows you to upload your data to the cloud and access it from wherever you are at any time. However, it can do so much more than that. One great feature with Drive is the ability so share any of your data with others. Take that important presentation, those financial accounts or a weekly schedule; now you can simply upload them to Drive and share them with whoever you want. Multiple people can then view and edit the document simultaneously. You can literally see other users making changes live, as they happen and without needing to save anything. It’s a standout feature and makes Drive great for that sort of collaborative work.

However, tracking the changes that had been made was never quite as good as it should be. Now, Google are setting to change that with the introduction of an activity stream.

Google announced the introduction of the activity stream back in the middle of January, writing in a blog post on their website that the service should be available within the week. So, by the time this article is live the feature should be readily available.

This is a single list that will show you every action that has been carried out on your files and folders. Everything will be tracked here, like when someone makes changes or a comment. Even things like adding a new spreadsheet or renaming a document will be tracked. Additionally, it will show you who the file has been shared with, making it easier to know who’s accessing the data and when. It’s a small security feature, but one that is likely to prove beneficial for a lot of users.

To access the activity stream you need to click the ‘I’ button in the top right corner when logged in. This will then show the list and give you a complete rundown of everything that has been happening. You can also select an individual file in the list and be given information that is relevant only to that, making viewing changes even more of a breeze.

It’s no surprise that Google are beginning to focus more on features that benefit businesses and teams. A few cloud storage providers are now starting to shift their focus to enterprise consumers, some even scrapping their free plans completely. While it is unlikely that Google will go that far, at least for the near future, it’s great that their service is continually being updated to provide users with the best experience possible.