Google Drive leak suggests 5GB of free cloud storage

[Corey]

Rumors surrounding Google’s cloud storage service are ramping up as we move closer toward the product’s rumored release date. The service will apparently be called Google Drive and is similar to Dropbox, which allows users to store files on cloud servers and access them from computers and mobile devices. According to a leaked screenshot obtained by TalkAndroid, Google Drive will offer 5GB of free storage instead of the previously rumored 1GB. The image also reaffirms that files can be accessed through computers, mobile phones, tablets and via a web browser, and it will allow users to edit a document in one place that will automatically be updated in all locations. Google Drive is rumored to launch the week of April 16th.

Read

 

View the full article

[Ken]

Looks cool, Already use google docs, this will be a handy service.

[ajnl]

awesome, hopefully it'll work as good as dropbox does! And hopefully it'll work on the iphone and ipad

[Ghostwind]

UPDATE:

 

Looks like tomorrow or Wednesday is the RTC

 

http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/04/16/google-drive-detailed-5-gb-for-free-launching-next-week-for-mac-windows-android-and-ios/

[Gewh]

With only 5gb it won't rock many boats - Gmail already offers more.

The day after this comes out Dropbox will up their quota (or they will do something) - although 16gb for free is already available.

Skydrive really needs the apps to come out for it but then there is 25gb for free across some devices.

I've got 50gb with Box.net for free (I don't use it mind, because the web interface is the only way you can get into it).

 

This needs more than just multiplatform and a few gigabytes.

[Ghostwind]

With only 5gb it won't rock many boats - Gmail already offers more.

The day after this comes out Dropbox will up their quota (or they will do something) - although 16gb for free is already available.

Skydrive really needs the apps to come out for it but then there is 25gb for free across some devices.

I've got 50gb with Box.net for free (I don't use it mind, because the web interface is the only way you can get into it).

 

This needs more than just multiplatform and a few gigabytes.

The point is that it comes with more space than dropbox by default. No additional recruiting needs to be done. Plus, upgrading your storage space is dirt cheap.

 

https://accounts.google.com/b/0/PurchaseStorage

Edited April 17, 2012 by Ghostwind

[Rabidraccoon]

The online storage is great for transferring file between friends or backing up non-sensitive files. My concern is if in the future they will start scanning the files and be forced to release the info. Like Bob has 153 songs that were not purchased. Or Sally has an e-mail that says quotes her bragging about not claiming amounts on taxes. Or Aunt Jean's family recipe for brownies is actually just a copy off the box of Duncan Hines. I prefer to store all my stuff on a networked drive at home. So I have a copy on my PC and a backup on a hard drive. The issue with online storage in Canada is that we don't have unlimited data transfer. The basic plans have 1 GB of data transfers a month. Sucks!

[Ghostwind]

The issue with online storage in Canada is that we don't have unlimited data transfer. The basic plans have 1 GB of data transfers a month. Sucks!

 

Who is your provider? Shaw might have limits, but they never enforce them.

[Rabidraccoon]

Bell, the only provider available in the boonies where I live.

[Gewh]

Reuters saying 5gb is the plan, up to 100gb on paid plans.

 

Regarding what I said earlier about space, Gmail offers 7gb but nobody uses the full amount. Emails/attachments take up megabytes. After 2 years I have used 200mb in space. They can offer so much because they can afford to offer the space. (You don't get given a 7gb partition which remains mainly blank for the life of your account, your quota is 7gb so you just use Goog's disk space until you reach 7gb of it.)

 

Whereas with a cloud storage drive punters use more space, with their holiday pics and music etc. My dropbox is 65% full - compared to my 1% full Gmail. So if Google were to offer 50gb for free to everyone, the amount of space required for everyone would skyrocket. Probably why MS have just reduced SkyDrive's capacity from 25gb to 7gb (if you are a new SkyDrive user - previous users keep 25gb) with the release of their desktop apps to accomodate the surge in users using more space.

 

Anyway since 20gb of Goog space is $5 a year, if you're really set on giving them the stuff you do offline to add to the stuff you give them when you're online, this will be right up your street.