OmniDrive: Search Google Drive From The Chrome Omnibar
Is Google Drive your preferred and favorite service for cloud storage? If so, OmniDrive is a Chrome extension you might love. It’s a simple little extension that adds a functionality Chrome should have by default; it allows you to search your Google Drive from the Omnibar. Type Drive in the Omnibar, hit the Space bar or the Tab key and then type in the title of a document or any search term and hit enter. Suggestions for matching documents appear as you type and once you hit Enter, the search results are displayed in your Google Drive in the same tab. Since the feature isn’t native to Chrome, being signed in to the browser will do you no good. You will have to sign in to Gmail and ensure you’re signed in each time you want to use the extension.
OmniDrive doesn’t add buttons or anything else to Chrome; it works silently in the background, though, the first time you use it you will have to authorize it to connect with your account.
Once you give it the green signal, you can start searching from either a new tab or the current one. The extension’s description says to hit the space bar after typing ‘Drive’ but some of you might need to hit the Tab key instead. Search suggestions take a little time to load and that’s one part that could stand a little improvement since most users are likely to have typed in a search word and hit Enter long before the suggestions have loaded. The search results appear in the same tab and it’s only too bad there isn’t an option to have the results open in a new tab.
For Windows and Mac users, this might be a fast way to access your Google Drive without turning to your synced folder but if you’re on a Chrome Book this turns in to a must-have extension. As mentioned before, this really should be something that Chrome supports by default with the option to enable / disable it and the good news is that the feature is under consideration. Head to the extension’s page in the Chrome Web Store and you can vote at the provided link to move it up and possibly have it implemented.
Similar extension might be available in the Chrome Web Store for other cloud storage service, but considering the large user base of Google and its services (all of which require a single ID) OmniDrive might have wider appeal.
Install OmniDrive From Chrome Web Store
