Dropbox takes on Google Drive with Gmail upload tool

Dropbox is taking the fight to Google Drive through a new Chrome add-on that allows content to be added directly to Gmail messages.

Users of the popular cloud storage service will be able to take advantage of the add-on to upload files into emails just as you can already do with Google Drive.

Available from the Chrome Web Store, it adds a circular button next to the send button inside messages and once clicked a file browser, that will be familiar to any current users of the service, opens up and allows you to pick content.

Unfortunately it doesn't let you upload the files directly to the email message and instead adds a web link to the Dropbox file in question. It does still benefit from rich preview images at the bottom of the email, it's just that the attachments themselves won't actually be in the email.

How do they compare?

Dropbox is free for up to 2GB of cloud storage and an upgrade to Dropbox Pro offers up to 1TB of storage for $9.99 (around £6.53, or AU$12.91) per month. In comparison, Google Drive gives away 15GB of free storage, then 100GB of storage costs $1.99 (around £1.30, or AU$2.57) and 1TB is $9.99 (around £6.53, or AU$12.91).

The cloud market has become increasingly competitive in the recent past with Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox and various others jostling for position. One of the best deals around is available to Microsoft Office 365 customers who get unlimited OneDrive storage as part of any subscription plan.

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