Google Software

Google Drive : The Basics

Google has been threatening to enter the mainstream cloud storage market for some time, and finally Google drive is live now.

There are plenty of companies already offering cloud-based storage to individuals and businesses, but with Google’s brand and spending power does it have the opportunity to eclipse them all?

Google Drive Features

Google Drive, otherwise known as GDrive, will come with a 5GB of free space for people who want to store information for free. Upgrade to 25 GB for less than $2.50 a month, and you can store practically everything for next to nothing. 5GB of storage space is already offered by Apple’s iCloud free of charge, while DropBox gives those who sign up 2GB to play with, so Google is at least going to be competitive in this respect.

Google Drive lets you do more than just store your files. Share files with exactly who you want and edit them together, from any device. Google Drive gives you instant access to Google Docs that makes working together better.

Cost

You can get 25 GB for $2.49 / Month and in Bonus your Gmail storage will be upgraded to 25 GB. And for 100 GB, you need to pay $4.99 / Month. You can avail space upto 16TB.

Compatibility

Google Drive is everywhere – on the web, in your home, at the office and on the go. So wherever you are, your stuff is just…there. Ready to go, ready to share. Get started with 5 GB free.

Google Drive is available for:

  •     PC and Mac
  •     iPhone and iPad (coming soon)
  •     Android devices

Google Drive is introduced on both Mac and Windows-based computers, which will presumably include some kind of web-based functionality which will allow access to a user’s data from any device with an internet connection.

Whether or not Google will also develop a desktop app to make automatic data synchronisation a simple process remains to be seen, although if it wants to rub shoulders with the likes of DropBox then this will certainly be important.

Chances of Success

Google already has extensive experience with cloud-computing platforms and will probably easily win over users to its GDrive service. This will be achieved by integrating it into existing services such as Gmail and Google Docs to help current users make the jump.

However, it is worth pointing out that Google’s most recent attempt to enter an already crowded market place, namely with social-networking service Google+, has been less than entirely successful. While it was able to sign up millions of people to Google+ by offering it to existing users, the actual percentage of these who continued to use the service rather than turning back to more established social-networking platforms is disappointingly low.

Email integration is thought to be key to the success of Google Drive, because giving users greater flexibility in the way they store messages and attachments without fragmenting the two services will be a great advantage.

Business users might be particularly enamoured with this type of service, although its impact on the wider consumer market is far from predictable.

About the author

VISHAL

I am Vishal Gaikar, Engineer, Web Addicted, Living in Maharastra, India. Email Me @ vishal@techbucket.org

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