Can we assume a file stored in the cloud and link saved in the pocket app, are same?

Question

Let’s imagine a user uses a cloud service (for example Google Drive) for:

1. Only backing up his data
2. Accessing files from different locations and different devices
3. To expand the storage capacity of his mobile devices such as phone and tablet

And he uses the Pocket mobile app for:

1. For keeping the links
2. Creating visual bookmarks
3. Sharing links in the future with friends and other apps.

Question begins here

Today, I had the discussion with my team and they ask me to create a unified view where user can see both things together in a single window. They have presented the idea that we can treat a file stored in the cloud as link. Can we?

I wasn’t satisfied with the idea because as a user I always see the files and web link as two separate entity. I don’t know the reason but I was quite confident about that but I didn’t have reason to defend myself.

Furthermore…

Let’s assume for a while if I we can treat them as a similar entity then – Would it be too much for the user to view the files and folders along with links? I think google file system display files in the similar fashion as windows and mac does. Even though the organization of the files and folder are pretty messy (local and cloud) but still user is still able to find the desired files …. In other post

Answer 1

The issue you seem to be running into is whether you should treat a local sync of some cloud content as separate from the cloud content. Yes, from an engineering perspective cloud content is a link, but that isn't how most non-technical users see it.

To draw a more common parallel, let's consider email. Many users have a gmail account for their email, but they use an IMAP service to sync it to their local machine's mail program. You in essence have a local copy, and a cloud copy of every email. Most users won't think of them as completely separate items, but rather simply that their mailbox is either synced or not.

As another example, consider Dropbox. I have all my cloud content synced on my local machine, but I don't think of them as separate. I take it as a given that the syncing is working and all I have to worry about is whether they are synced or not.

My suggestion given the limited information in the question is to consider them as the same thing, and simply mark items somehow as either synced or not. Dropbox handle this well, and I would suggest you follow their example.