HONG KONG — After years of speculation, search giant Google finally broke its silence on Wednesday regarding the availability of Google Drive, its cloud storage service which will give users up to 5GB of free storage space.
In an announcement on its official blog, the company said Google Drive is the natural evolution from Google Docs, the company’s Web-based office productivity suite, which has allowed uploads of different filetypes in recent years.
Users will be given an initial 5GB of storage space in the service for free upon signup, with an option to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49 per month; 100GB for $4.99 per month; and 1TB of storage space for $49.99 a month.
Subscribers of the premium service will have their GMail Inbox space upgraded to 25GB as well, Google added.
“Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience,” the technology giant said. “You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you’ll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail.”
But Google Drive is not just about storage, as the company said they are working with third-party developers to integrate various functions into the service, including editing videos or creating website mockups.
Interested users can signup by visiting the Google Drive page and install Mac and PC apps to easily upload their files to the cloud. A Drive app has also been made available in the Google Play Shop (formerly Android market), while an iOS app is currently in development.
Google Drive is said to be the IT firm’s response to Dropbox, a hugely popular file-syncing service that offers an initial 2GB of free storage space to users of various platforms.
Microsoft also has its own cloud storage facility called SkyDrive, which it has deeply integrated in all Windows versions, including in mobile phones.
source: interaksyon.com
