The Wall Street Journal has just reignited an old rumor:
Google is, not-so-secretly, working to unveil an internet service through which
the computer users will be able to store all their data on Google’s servers.
As a consequence, their music files, videos or documents
will be accessible from any Internet-capable device.
Although Google denied commenting on the rumor, The Wall
Street Journal noted that the name of the new service could be GDrive or
MyStuff.
As usual, a Google spokeswoman offered a diplomatic response.
She said in a statement that "storage is an important component of making
Web (applications) fit easily into consumers' and business users' lives."
Let’s stop here and let’s take a short look at the recent
history. The rumors about Google’s GDrive
are already two years old and last time they had been fueled by a
fragment from a presentation held by Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, at an
investor conference in March 2006.
"Store 100%" reality, the online copy of your data
will become your Golden Copy and your local-machine copy serves more like a
cache. An important implication of this theme is that we can make your online
copy more secure than it would be on your own machine. Another important
implication of this theme is that storing 100% of a user's data makes each
piece of data more valuable because it can be access across applications. For
example: a user's Orkut profile has more value when it's accessible from Gmail (as
addressbook), Lighthouse (as access list), etc.”, said Erich Schmidt in
the presentation.
The concept of online storage is nothing new and there are
already several companies which, for a monthly or annual fee, rent you a
certain number of MB or GB in order for you to save those essential data that
you don’t want to lose if your personal computer begins to malfunction.
Even Microsoft has jumped into the “boat” of online storage and
it offers a offers a test version of a service called Windows Live SkyDrive
with one gigabyte of free storage.
Google also offers extensive web-based storage and
applications through services like its Gmail, Docs and Picasa.
So where’s the catch? The Wall Street Journal explained that
Google hopes to distinguish itself from existing online storage services partly
by simplifying the process for transferring and opening files.
Also, Google hopes is hoping the new storage service will
help tie together some of its other services through a single search box, The
Wall Street Journal explained.
Still, although Google MyStuff or GDrive, seems so far to be
an interesting addition to the online storage market, I bet there are more
features then those reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The integration of MyStuff with its existing services such
as Google Docs or Google Page Creator could be the strong point of
Google’s new offer.
Of course, Google has deal with of lot of issues such as
data privacy, availability, copyright infringements and technical challenges,
but according to The Wall Street Journal, the new service could be unveiled in
the coming months.
Let’s wait and see what Google is “cooking” for us!