Quick Access: Building a Smart Experience for Google Drive

Sandeep Tata (Google Inc.);Alexandrin Popescul (Google Inc.);Marc Najork (Google Inc.);Mike Colagrosso (Google Inc.);Julian Gibbons (Google Inc.);Alan Green (Google Inc.);Alexandre Mah (Google Inc.);Michael Smith (Google Inc.);Divanshu Garg (Google Inc.);Cayden Meyer (Google Inc.);Reuben Kan (Google Inc.)

Abstract

Google Drive is a cloud storage and collaboration service used by hundreds of millions of users around the world. Quick Access is a new feature in Google Drive that surfaces the right documents when a user visits the home screen. Our metrics show that users locate their documents in half the time with this feature compared to previous approaches. The development of Quick Access illustrates many general challenges and constraints associated with practical machine learning such as protecting user privacy, working with data services that are not designed with machine-learning in mind, and evolving product definitions. We believe that the lessons learned from this experience will be useful to practitioners tackling a wide range of applied machine-learning problems.