In what has to be one of the worst-kept secrets in Google history, the search giant finally opened the garage doors and let Google Drive go for a spin onto computers and Android devices, with an iOS client yet to come.
The Google Official Blog has announced the availability of Google Drive, the company’s new cloud storage service. There’s little doubt that the crew in Mountain Drive is taking direct aim at the likes of Dropbox, SugarSync and even Microsoft’s SkyDrive, which only yesterday unleashed its own client software for OS X Lion.
“Today, we’re introducing Google Drive -- a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff,” the blog reveals. “Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.”
As widely predicted, Google Drive matches Dropbox with a free 5GB storage allotment out of the gate, but Google has done one better by integrating your existing Google Docs account right into the Drive service. That means wherever you install the Drive client software -- for now, Mac, Windows or Android -- your Docs will be available will be available for real-time collaboration with others.
Of course, Google Drive isn’t simply a host for Docs -- like Dropbox, you can toss any files you’d like into the dedicated folder on your computer or mobile device, which gets tossed up into the cloud and available from anywhere, including a web browser if that’s all you have access to.
Search is also a big part of Google Drive -- not surprising considering that’s how Google made a name for itself. Text in scanned documents will be recognized using optical character recognition (OCR) so you’ll never have to worry about finding something.
So what if 5GB isn’t enough for you? Users can upgrade to 25GB for a mere $2.49 per month, 100GB for $4.99 per month or a whopping 1TB for $49.99 per month -- and paid accounts will also have their related Gmail account storage bumped to 25GB at the same time.
The only thing missing for now is a companion iOS app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. If you’re holding out hope that it will be launching today, we’d say don’t hold your breath: Google’s blog claims “we’re also working hard on a Drive app for your iOS devices,” which certainly doesn’t sound like it will be launching anytime soon. Bummer…
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