Google is rolling out an update for cloud storage service Drive that should help people locate specific files more easily.
As explained in a new blog post, Google is introducing a new “search chips” feature to Drive, which lets users filter search results using various different parameters, including file type, labels and last modified date.
Google Drive will also make it possible to filter based on “To do” status, which narrows down the pool of results to include only files that have outstanding actions associated with them.
File management in Google Drive
Since the transition to remote working, a larger proportion of collaboration has taken place online, over platforms such as Google Workspace. Inevitably, this also means that people are juggling a larger number of files, from documents and spreadsheets to images and videos.
The ever-expanding number of files hosted in each worker’s domain, many of which are likely to use a similar naming convention, makes managing and locating specific documents all the more difficult, a problem the latest Google Drive update attempts to remedy.
“When searching in Drive, users often use a few key words to try and locate the file they’re looking for, such as ‘marketing plan’ or ‘sales report’, which may return results that are too broad,” Google explained.
“[Search chips] make it easier to find relevant files faster and eliminates the need to perform multiple searches to sort through irrelevant results.”
In addition to the introduction of search chips, Google has also made a number of further tweaks and improvements. For example, Google Drive will now offer spelling suggestions in the search field and automatically assign labels to content to help with effective categorization.
The search chips feature has been available in beta since November last year, but is now in the process of rolling out to all Google Workspace users, who will gain access within the next two weeks.
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