Hosting static web pages and assets with Google Drive
2nd February 2014 | by Adam Beres-Deak | google drive, hosting
Have you ever needed to quickly deploy a website somewhere? Maybe to show a client some demo content? Or to show a buddy your newest static web app? Here's the solution.
Google Drive officially supports hosting static files (like web pages and their assets). According to a discussion on Stack Exchange it doesn't violate the TOC when hotlinking these resources (free CDN?).
Here is what to do:
- Create a new folder in Google Drive
- Change its visibility options to: "Public on the web"
- Upload your files (html, css, js, images, swf, etc.)
- It's recommended to place an index.html file into the folder, which will be the default document in the directory
- Grab the URL of your folder (currently shown on the right under "HOSTING" when you select your newly created folder)
- There you go, just enter this URL into the browser. It should be something like
https://googledrive.com/host/12345678901234567890abcd/ - You should be able to reference files directly inside that folder, e.g.
https://googledrive.com/host/12345678901234567890abcd/css/main.min.css
Please note that this method is really meant to host static files. There is no support for backend code.
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