How to Host Web Content on Google Drive?

Google Drive, as you might know, is one of the more recent cloud storage services. For starters, it offers some functionality that makes it better than its closest competitors, i.e. SkyDrive and DropBox. One such feature is the seamless integration with other Google products, and the story doesn't end there. Google Drive will also let you host static web content, so that you can run a simple website right on your drive! This sort of functionality was only offered by DropBox before. Now, it's Google's turn to establish its superiority. In this post, we'll talk about hosting your own web content on Google Drive.

Cloud storage is a great way to host web pages. For one, it lets web developers get a feel of how their websites would actually look on the web. Besides, it could be used to share photos, videos, and other information with friends and family, without fear of people from the outside hacking into your system, or spamming your website etc. It is also a great way for freelancers to show their work to their clients.

Hosting web content on Google Drive

Now you can't host dynamic websites on Google Drive. Nothing that requires server-end computing. Technologies like PHP, ASP etc require back-end processing, so they can't run. You can only host simple, static websites that are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript driven.

Now you could use this just like you'd use GooglePages or code.google.com for a similar purpose. But GooglePages has been replaces with Google Sites, and no longer supports direct uploading, which is kind of a let-down, because we need to directly upload webpages in order to test them on Google Drive. Google Code, on the other hand, has bandwidth issues. Hence, Google Drive is the best option you have for hosting your static website.

How to host a website on Google Drive?

To host a website on your Drive, log into your Google Drive account from a web browser, and create a folder. This folder can be inside the main Google Drive folder, or inside another private directory. The path isn't of concern. What's important is the permission you set on that directory. This directory will host your web files, so it needs to be shared with the public, or else, no one will be able to see it.

Now that you've created a folder to hos your files, it's time to put the files in. Upload all your web files in this folder. Now, you need to share it with the public. To do this, right click on the folder, and then click on Share >> Share.....

Now, look under the "Who has access" section, and change the setting from Private to "Public on the web". Then, copy the link given on top. You'll need it for the next step.

Now, you need to get your hosting link. You can do this manually. The URL you just copied is the link to your shared file, and not to the hosting. There's a slight adjustment you need to make in the URL. The link you copied will go something like this: https://docs.google.com/folder/d/link-to-your-site. You have to change it to https://googledrive.com/host/link-to-your-site. Notice that the 'link-to-your-site' part remains the same.

Now, you can give this link to whoever you like! It'll take them to your hosted website. Cool, right? You can see Google's instructions on hosting a website on Google Drive. And believe it or not, they've hosted the instructions on Google Drive itself! You can view the instructions here. You can use any JavaScript files on your own site.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Try this out with your own Drive, and let us know if you have any problems. Peace :)

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Unknown 2/17/2013