
Trouble is afoot in Mountain View:
fact.
According to Brad McCarty, a journalist at The Next Web, he has
struck gold after allegedly being sent a draft release from a
partner of Google's upcoming Google Drive service. The details?
Google will offer 5GB of storage and it will reportedly launch next
Tuesday. All we know, is that Google is furious about this
leak.
So the rumours are true,
the sleeping giant wakes?
As early as five years ago Google
contemplated launching a cloud-storage service. But these
particular rumours have certainly been brewing for a long time.
Google spokespeople have declined to comment, but within the last
couple of days it seems the
rumours are picking up steam. Google has made one single
statement on the leak to msnbc.com on Monday: "We do not comment on
rumour or speculation". At time of writing, Google has failed to
address anything on its official blog which is very surprising. The
blog seems to be its favourite way of releasing
news like major algorithm updates!
OK, so what's the hype
about?
On February 9 of this year, the
Wall Street Journal had reported that "Google [was] near the launch
of [a] cloud storage service". This article detailed what
Google was planning and is worth a read.
Google Drive is basically the
giant's response to the growth of internet-connected mobile devices
and 'cloud computing'. Cloud computing is the technology to store
files online so they can be retrieved from multiple devices. This
would include photos, documents and videos; Google Drive users
could easily share files with others.
Can Google catch up to
their competitors?
In 2011, $830 million was spent on
such storage devices; Google wants a piece of this pie for sure.
Google Drive is expected to be added to its suite of software sold
to businesses called Google Apps, making it competitive to Box.net,
a company that sells cloud storage to businesses.
Google Drive is rumoured to be
offering its customers 5GB of free storage. If the offer of 5GB
free is true, then this would match what their chief competitors
Apple and Amazon offer for free with their cloud-based storage
services: iCloud and Cloud Drive.
Dropbox is the buzz word at
Mountain View
Despite competition from similar
giants and technology mainstays, Google considers new kid on the
block Dropbox as one of their hottest competitors. Founded in 2007
by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates, by October
2011 Dropbox had 45 million members who saved one billion files
every few days. Such is the transformation of this whippersnapper
into a juggernaut, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston reportedly turned down
a nine-figure buyout from Apple.
Dropbox gives its customers 2GB of
free storage. For an extra $10 or $20 a month, Dropbox customers
can store up to 50GB or 100GB, plus the option to buy more.
Google reportedly aims to match
these offers for a smaller fee, taking advantage of its already
massive cloud infrastructure which stores and powers all of its
services. Dropbox, on the other hand, uses Amazon's Web Services
like Netflix and Zynga does; Amazon Web Services is a division that
maintains a network of computers that stores data online.
What do you think of the
Google Drive rumours? Would you be tempted to 'go
Google'?
The above screenshot (allegedly
leaked from Google) was taken from
Wired.