Google Drive – Efficient Way to Delete Shared Google Drive Files

Google Drive does not offer the option to search for other users' public documents (see here).

However, it is possible for users to find these documents via Google Search using a filter. In order to search exclusively for public Google documents, a user would have to search using the following:

site:docs.google.com/document/d [keyword]

To create a tool that would allow users to search for these documents, you might consider simply creating an HTML form that submits to google with the site:docs.google.com/document/d prepended.

Here's a quick demo of that using AngularJS:

https://github.com/cweems/Google-Docs-Search/tree/cc00038e67d6d3ff15ae19a271f0bfec99437b41

Navigate to the 'app' folder and then open index.html in your browser. Enter keywords into the text box and click submit: it will return a list of results that are only Google Docs.

For Google drive files (docs, sheets, slides etc.) you can select file>Published to the web... This will create a PUBLIC dynamically linked url that can be directly shared on facebook etc. or embedded. Note as this is dynamic if you change the file these changes will also be posted to the internet.

For other files in Google drive you need to go to the advanced button on the bottom right of the share screen (accessed from the little man's head with a plus beside it that appears when you select the file). From here you can choose the access link beside the owners name and make public with link.

For both cases there is a risk that others may view the file.