June 08, 2015

How to Find Public Google Drive Folders

Raj J Salecha
shared this article with you from Inoreader

Generally, when you try to open a web directory in your browser, the browser will either return you an "index" page – an HTML page (or PHP or ASP etc.) that's in the root of the directory, or if the index file is absent, it will deny access to the directory. But if the index file is missing and the webmaster forgot to password protect the folder, the server will return a listing of the files that are within the directory. An unprotected web directory is like a publicly accessible open computer. You can navigate within the folders, view files or even download them. Many webmasters routinely forget to configure their webservers to deny directory access, thereby exposing their content on the internet for anybody to see.

Google Drive too allows creation of public folders. The idea is to let people share content with others without having to send invitation or requiring them to login to their respective Google accounts. If you use Google Drive, you must already know this. What you might not have been aware is that these public folders are searchable on the web.That's right. All those open content have been crawled by Google's spiders and neatly indexed in a file somewhere on their servers.

To find a public Google Drive folder, copy and paste the following query into the Google's search field:

site:https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=

gdrive-public-folder   s

You can combine the "site" parameter with other queries. For instance,

mp3 site:https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=

will show you all public Google Drive folders with MP3 files. Replace "MP3" with "MP4" or "AVI" and you'll find folders containing videos. You can also search for "books" or "PDF" or "DOC".

How to prevent exposing your public Google Drive folder?

Simple. Don't keep a public folder. If you had created a public folder in the past and if its purpose has been served, lock down the folder or delete it. If you can't delete a public Google Drive folder, go through its content to check whether you placed something there accidentally.

You can also change how others access your public folders. To do that, foll ow these steps.

1. Open your Google Drive account and look for the "user icon" in the folders. That icon indicates public folder.

gdrive-permission-1

2. Select the folder, and click on the link icon in the toolbar.

gdrive-permission-2

3. Click on Sharing settings

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4. Click on Advanced

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5. Here you can see who has ac cess to the folder. Click on Change.

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6. Set it to "Off – Specific people". Then Save it.

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7. Now your folder can be viewed by only those people who you share it with.

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© Instant Fundas, 2015
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June 03, 2015

Where to Buy Used Books Online With Cheap/Free International Shipping

Raj J Salecha
shared this article with you from Inoreader

There are thousands of book stores on the internet that will sell you used books for cheap. If their business is in the same country as yours, you can even avail free shipping, or at least, a reasonable shipping rate. Book lovers from the United States and the United Kingdom are typically at advantage here because a large of number of publishing houses and book stores operate from these countries. But for international addresses, the cost of shipping is usually high enough to prohibit buyers from taking advantage of their services.

Take Powell's for instance, a bookstore based in Portland, Oregon, the U.S., with literally millions of titles in both books and DVDs. They ship within the United States for $3.99, and for orders above $50, shipping is free. But for international deliveries, the shipping charges are $7 per shipment + $5.99 per item, which amounts to nearly $13 for one book. For each a dditional book you pay 6 dollars more. It doesn't make sense to buy used from Powel's if your total expense exceeds the price of a new copy. It's the same story with Amazon's used books marketplace, and Alibris, another U.S. and U.K. based bookstore that charges $15 per book just for shipping.

used-books

Photo credit

Bookstores That Offer Free International Shipping

Bookstores that offer free shipping worldwide are rare, but they exist. Also exist are stores that charges a nominal fee for shipping the package to you. If you are looking for a used book, head over to these places.

Better World Books is an US-based bookseller that sells both new and used books, and is one of the only two online bookstores that offer free international shipping. Their inventory comes primarily from regular donation drives conducted at over 2,300 colleges and universities and donations from over 3000 library systems, in addition to donation boxes installed on corners and on college campuses. < /p>

better-world-books

Better World Books also donates a percentage of profits earned from each book sale to causes related to literacy and education. Since its founding in 2002, Better World Books has recycled 186 million books, at the time of this writing, amounting to an estimated $20 million in donation.

As for the books, you will fi nd most current best sellers as well as classics and literary books. Textbooks are also available. Better World Books also sells DVDs and audiobooks.

Book Depository is a UK-based online bookseller with a large catalogue and offers free shipping all over the world. The store was originally founded in 2004 and was later acquired by Amazon.

Book Depository has a decent collection but the used books are not always cheap. You can hope to save an average of $2 to $4 per book, but it can even be as low as 50 cents, so it might not be worth all that much.

book-depository

Bookstores That Offer Cheap International Shipping

Thrift Books is the largest of the used book sellers in the US and parent company to a number of subsidiaries. The company salvages books from charity shops, libraries, schools and colleges, bringing in on average 15 semi-trailer trucks full of used books every day to his warehouses. The store has recycled more than 400 million books since its founding ten years ago, and currently stocks 7 million titles ready to sale.

thrift-books

True to its name, Thrift Books offers books at very competitive prices. You can grab most books for $4 or less. There are also book deals where you get two books for $7, three books for $10, four books for $12 and additional books are only $3 each.

Shipping is 99 cents per item within US for orders below $10, and free above. Shipping to Canada and UK is $2.99 per item, an d for the rest of the world, it's $4.99 per item. Expedited shipping rates are higher - $9.99 for international deliveries, but still cheaper than most booksellers.

AwesomeBooks doesn't have the most exhaustive catalogue but they offer one of the best shipping rates. They charge a flat $4.63 for every order of any size, consisting of as many books as you want. UK deliveries are free. Books are usually priced between $3-$4.

Aside from books, AwesomeBooks also sales music CDs, movie DVDs and console games as well as PC games, all of which are priced at a flat $3.33 per CD or DVD.

awesomebooks

World of Books is another UK-based bookstore that offers used books at competitive prices. Their catalogue is not large but they do have a decent collection including really vintage material. Most of their books are priced between £3 and £3.49 (about $4 - $5.4). Shipping within UK is free, and for the rest of the world it's £2.00 per book or just $3.

world-of-books

AbeBooks is an online marketplace for books where you can search across the inventory of thousands of independent booksellers from more than 50 countries. All the above mentioned bookstores also have their presence on AbeBooks, but it's better to buy from them directly as their rates may vary on the AbeBooks marketplace. For inst ance, Better World Books charges $5 for shipping for books sold through AbeBooks, even though they offer free shipping on their own website. But for other small booksellers that don't have their own shop, AbeBooks is the perfect place to find them.

abebooks

Needless to say, AbeBooks has a staggering collection with titles ranging from the extremely common, w here there might be hundreds of copies listed priced at pennies, to truly unique manuscript material worth thousands of dollars. In addition to books, magazines, audio books, journals, illustration art, vintage photographs and paper ephemera are offered.

Shipping rates vary from bookseller to bookseller. It starts from a minimum of $5 for international addresses and can go all the way to $17-$18 or more. Some booksellers offer free shipping within the US and UK, or charge a nominal rate.

AbeBooks is run by Amazon.

Summary

Bookstore U.S. Shipping rate U.K. Shipping rate International
Shipping rate
Better World Books Free Free Free
Book Depository Free Free Free
Thrift Books $0.99 $2.99 $4.99
AwesomeBooks $4.63 per order Free $4.63 per order
World of Books $3 Free $3
AbeBooks Varies (starts free) Varies (starts free) Varies (starts $5)

© Instant Fundas, 2015
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