[RadiozRadioz]

Simple: if you make your documents in Markdown, you won't be making them in Google Docs. Stuff made in Google Docs is sticky, increases your dependence on Google, and importantly has a valuable network effect due to their collaboration features. It is in Google's best interest to encourage you to rely on their proprietary services instead of offering you alternatives that allow you to switch provider easily.

Additionally, the "people who know what Markdown is but also like trusting Google with their files" demographic is vanishingly small and not who Drive is targeting at all.

[SahAssar]

"people who know what Markdown is" overlaps very much with "people who have to use google docs for work but would prefer a consistent editing experience". Basically every dev I know has to use either teams/sharepoint/office or google docs, but most are also more comfortable with using markdown and use it for technical docs.

I'd love to have a google docs option of creating a "simple doc", that is backed by markdown and only supports the basics (headers, paragraphs, lists, maybe tables) and have a WYSIWYG for non-tech people and a (maybe git-based?) workflow for people used to markdown.

Something like what azure devops and github does with their wikis.

[danielvaughn]

+1, I love google docs and also love markdown. If there was a shared markdown editor with the same collaborative features as google docs, i'd probably never use anything else.

[hiddew]

We use Slite extensively at work. Works pretty well to quickly create/edit documents with a nice editor. When you type Markdown, the content automatically resolves the styling/headers/lists. Multiple persons editing a document at the same time is (of course) supported. And every document can be exported as Markdown or PDF.

[sharma-arjun]

Dropbox Paper should meet your requirements. I tried switching to it a few years ago, but the problem is that the other people I'm collaborating with always want to use Google Docs, and when I'm writing a document by myself, I'd much rather just write to a local file.

[mholm]

Product with corporate lock-in, but Quip allows the user to use markdown in their documents, and export their documents into Markdown.

[indymike]

Sounds a lot like something like Notion?

[SahAssar]

Notion is very sluggish and feels very unlike a markdown file-based system to me.

[danielvaughn]

Agreed, I like certain aspects of Notion, but as a FE dev myself, I think what they’re trying to do is too complex. I don’t see how they could ever make it performant.

[fastball]

Notion doesn't use Markdown.

[indymike]

Just type in markdown :-). It mostly works for input.

[fastball]

Sure, you can add asterisks around things and it will convert stuff to bold, etc, but Notion isn't actually a markdown-based app – the underlying representation of a Notion doc is stored as JSON.

[watwut]

Yes, pretty much this. I use Sharepoint and teams because I have to, not because I would think they are good or because I liked them. Sharepoint in particular is horrible, Teams are only slightly better.

I want markdown on sharepoint.

[aquaticsunset]

Try Loop, if your organization has been enabled for it. It's exactly what people here are wishing Google Drive had.

[noisy_boy]

> Basically every dev I know has to use either teams/sharepoint/office or google docs

I think there is another sizable set which heavily uses wiki. At my work, most people use it (a very small set of people use SharePoint for mainly PowerPoint or formatting heavy docs).

[SahAssar]

Are those devs not ever collaborating with non-tech people on documents? Also when you say wiki, do you mean a mediawiki instance or the ones included in things like github?

[grumblepeet]

SharePoint pages can now be created with Markdown BTW. There is a Markdown web part out of the box. Not so sure how Markdown files themselves are handled though, pretty badly I suspect.

[e40]

Agree completely with the first paragraph and disagree completely with the second paragraph.

There are lots of us who use Google drive at work that love md.

[RadiozRadioz]

Apologies, that part was primarily intended for home users. Google certainly isn't targeting that demographic, there are much larger ones to go after.

If you're forced to use Drive at work, Google isn't targeting you either. It's targeting the C-suites above you who buy the software, and they don't know what Markdown is. The fact that engineers are lamenting the lack of Markdown in Google Drive shows how much influence they have over those decisions.

[afavour]

I’m a developer working at a company that uses GSuite. My personal feelings about trusting Google aren’t really relevant, I’d love to use Markdown in GDoc, as would many of my coworkers!

[m-p-3]

I'd be happy if only they supported the CommonMark format properly in GChat..

[coldtea]

>Agree completely with the first paragraph and disagree completely with the second paragraph. There are lots of us who use Google drive at work that love md.

That's not incompatible with the demographic being vanishingly small and not who Drive is targeting at all.

"A lot of us" can still be an insignificant number compared to the Google Drive userbase and target demographic.

Now, "more than 10% of Google Drive users" might start getting somewhere. But I doubt it's even close to 1%. Google Drive is not a tool targeted to developers especially, and developers are not that much of a demographic to matter for mass market services.

[KnobbleMcKnees]

I've seen virtually no use of Google Drive in the wild in my personal life. I've worked at 10k+ orgs that use it exclusively and every minute of every day.

I'm not sure where you're getting those stats but a source would be nice. I would suspect that their customer base and/or core usage is made up of far more tech company employees via Cloud and Workspaces than it is average Joes backing up documents.

[coldtea]

>I've seen virtually no use of Google Drive in the wild in my personal life

That's what I call a bubble.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/25/17613442/google-drive-one...

And that's in 2023.

As for the numbers of organizational paying users in 2023 (corporate users) were 6 million, compared to "over a billion" (in 2023). And of those 6 million organizational users of course only a smaller share are developers. Regular file sharing and G-suite stuff for office workers is the order of the day.

[jehb]

> I've seen virtually no use of Google Drive in the wild in my personal life.

Really? I'm curious, are the people you know using Dropbox, OneDrive, or something else? Or are they just not sharing files in a public cloud?

I started to retort "how do you even collaborate on spreadsheets with your friends?" before realizing maybe I just have some, err, unique friend groups.

[KnobbleMcKnees]

Our friend group also use spreadsheets to decide who is bringing what to the BBQ.

In the non tech-centric groups of friends and family, filesystem solutions have been superceded by all-in-ones like Google/Apple Photos, Notes etc.

Most people I know also use an iPhone meaning they're driven towards data storage that is built around an app use case, rather than simulating a desktop FS on another device.

Many of them use Google or Microsoft solutions for work though.

[moffkalast]

There are dozens of you.

[IshKebab]

Outside of HN, people that actually avoid giving Google any data are almost nonexistent. People that use Markdown definitely aren't. There's a huge number of pragmatic developers that use Markdown and Google.

[coldtea]

Seems like people can't fathom that "developers" in general are an insignificant demographic. Google Drive is used by a billion or more (including most Android users).

Developers are a handful of millions. Developers that use markdown outside of where they're forced to and actively want Google Drive to support it are even fewer.

[hooverd]

What's a good wiki with Markdown support? I hate how Confluence doesn't have it, and Jira sort of has it, even though they're supposed to be integrated. Preferably close to GFMD.

[indymike]

Google docs can only represent a subset of the document formatting and features in markdown (yes, there are html literals in markdown, but even then it isn't enough). Markdown could be an import/export format... but I can't see it working well with the Docs editor.

[adrianvoica]

'Additionally, the "people who know what Markdown is but also like trusting Google with their files" demographic is vanishingly small and not who Drive is targeting at all.' <--this 200%

[danielbln]

It's just not true at all. Knowing/using markdown doesn't make you some Richard Stallmann type.

[pluijzer]

Maybe the original author implies that you don't need to be a Richard Stallman type anymore, not to trust Google.

[DangitBobby]

HN/Reddit is a bit of a bubble. Most people trust Google just fine with their files.

[coldtea]

People who think Markdown users are a demographic major enough to matter in the context of the Google Drive userbase are also in a bit of a bubble...

[DangitBobby]

Yep.

[indymike]

I agree with this. Most people have know idea what markdown is, and if they do use it, it is usually the text format behind a WYSIWYG editor... Some examples: Slack, Github...

[quickthrower2]

docx is pretty portable as it goes. getting stuff converted (downsampled; in a sense) to markdown is easy enough.

[ELBeavers]

It's a bit like asking why Markdown isn't supported in Microsoft Word or Apple Pages. Environmental lock-in.

[bippihippi1]

that demographic is also likely to have an outaized effect on evangelizing cool new features and getting people to swap over from other products. how much google is trying to grow vs curb competition is the question.