Report: Google's 'Gdrive' online storage due in a few months
Google may release an online storage and backup service in the coming months,
adding to its suite of hosted services, which already includes a variety of
communication and collaboration applications, The Wall Street Journal reported
Tuesday.
Rumors that Google is developing such a service, informally known as the "Gdrive",
have been circulating for more than two years. It's not clear why it has taken
Google so long to deliver Gdrive, considering its concept is far from new and
online storage and backup services are available already from a variety of vendors.
In fact, according to the Journal, the company isn't still completely sure
it will bring this service to market, and plans for it could be shelved.
As existing services do, Google's would let people store files on Google servers
so that they could make backup copies of files on hard drives and access and
share them with others from any computer via the Internet, the Journal reported.
The service would provide an undetermined amount of storage for free, with
additional space available for a fee, the Journal reported, quoting anonymous
sources familiar with the plans.
Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from IDG News Service.
A Google spokeswoman contacted by the Journal declined to comment about any
specific online storage plans.
Google hopes to differentiate the service from existing competing ones by making
it easier to use, the Journal reported.
Google already offers hosted storage for a variety of its Web-based applications,
but this service would act as a sort of umbrella storage for multiple Google
applications, allowing people to do keyword searches on their files, according
to the Journal.
IDG News Service
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