Microsoft updates SkyDrive, adds new features and apps

Microsoft spent years treating SkyDrive like the black sheep of the family. It was hidden in the corner, no connection to anything else, and no notable features to speak of. SkyDrive finally got some attention recently, and it’s going to be built into Windows 8. But now we’re really getting the goods as Redmond is rolling out a new version of SkyDrive with a ton of improvements.

The first thing to know is that the SkyDrive cloud storage service will be available in more places. There will soon be apps for Android and iOS that let users access, upload, and share files. Both Windows and Mac OS X desktops will get a SkyDrive app too. Microsoft is making a more robust developer API available that lets third-party apps store and access any file type, so you will be seeing SkyDrive in more places.

The biggest changes are to the SkyDrive web interface, which has been totally revamped to match the recent Outlook release. It has the clean Metro-style look with tiles, and lots of solid colors.Microsoft says it updated almost every pixel in the UI to make it more usable and modern. I certainly can’t dispute that it looks more modern. As for usability, we’ll have to wait for the update to become available for everyone over the next day or so.

Microsoft has added a few interesting features, not least among them the new instant search. The search bar in SkyDrive will now pull up results from all SkyDrive folders and even the content of saved Office docs. Microsoft is also using a new contextual toolbar that makes it easier to find the functions that you need. I’m personally rather excited about the addition of drag and drop for multi-file uploads in the browser.

Behind the scenes, Microsoft claims to have tightened up the code, making syncing faster and more stable. This is all welcome, and I’m happy to see SkyDrive finally taking its place center stage after languishing for so long.