I like the idea of putting my non-sensitive files on a network drive that way I can get to them from anywhere. That is the same reason I use Gmail, I can get to it from anywhere, Imagine streaming your music to your cell phone or showing the girl you just met in the coffee shop your snowboarding video and the pictures from your uncle's 5th wedding. So yeah you wouldnt want to put you user/password cheatsheet out there. I think people want one thing and that is for stuff to be easy and Google is doing that. I see Google replacing your cable company, your phone company, your bank, your library, and eventually your computer. You will walk around with your googlepod which will just be a network access device. Maybe they will buy a company that has figured out how to interface directly into our brains...they will call them Gimplants or something an then we wont ever have to think for ourselves any more. We will be able to upload our daily life routines and execute them in cyberspace.

I would be interested in this service, but for non-critical files and those I want to share with friends only.

I already have an external 500GB backup drive and DVDs for the important stuff ;)

One would think that your example is exactly what Google is aiming for.

where users could eventually store 100 percent of their data.

Amusing that so many people read 'could' and immediately replace it with 'should', and then verbally express their ignorance as they expound on how Evil Google is for wanting *all* of your data.

JD, and now, it seems spyderloco, are quite good at that little trick.

I sure would not let Google store my personal information and/or files.

I'm not a dummy and I am fine backing my stuff up to another HD like I have been for years. They just want all the information they can get.

They're just trying to help....yeah right.

Here is your tinfoil hat.

Here's your "mark of the beast".

Here's your:

"Read the F'ing article without your silly bias and *then* come talk to us."

No-one *ever* said you had to put personal files on there....or even that you should. One would think common sense would dictate such things. They merely state that you *could*. It comes across to one without bias as a clue as to how much space one may be granted, not some conspiracy to control the world.

THZGryphon, he doesn't need a tinfoil hat. He's already covered with it.

Here's an idea...encrypt your data. Or better yet, store your family photos on there and not you MS Money backup file. Let them index your crazy picture of drunk Uncle Eddie.

Nowhere is it said what KIND of data can be stored there, only your own conspiracy theories on what they could do with your Uncle Eddie pictures.

This goes right back to Common Sense.

I really wish more people had some of it.

Wow, you obviously spend too much time here and need to go have a beer or something. Relax.

Read my post jackass and see that I didn't say that anyone said I had to put files up there. I said I would not do it. I think that people that do are idiots.

Enjoy. :)

Oh yeah.....also........

You're an idiot.

Hate to brake it to you guys, Novell's had this for quite a while now. (ifolder.com). It works great and they offer it free now under their new focus on the open source community. The ideas is great, it's sad that Google (or Microsoft) have to rebrand it from Novell before anyone will take a look at it. I've used it for over a year now and can't imagine another way to keep docs on multiple computers.

Ya, we only need one of everything.

iFolder isn't exactly plug and play.

The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), with its duck bill and webbed feet, is a unique Australian animal.

Also, Platypus name is already used by the
Mozilla Foundation
http://platypus.mozdev.org/

And Firefox was already in use by private companies before Mozilla used it.

Platypus is also the name of a powerful billing database system which has been around for ages and was recently acquired by Tucows.

http://resellers.tucows.com/backoffice/

So long as the products do not mingle in the same markets, such use is allowed.

Gmail, minus the mail part
seems easy enough

...and no 10MB file-size limit.

I think it is something like :
https://www.foldershare.com/

It works Great .

No. This is completely different. Foldershare doesn't host the files. It just sets your computer up as a proprietary FTP server that can only be accessed through their website.

This service would actually copy your files to an offsite server, which you can access and download them from later.

If your computer crashes with just Foldershare installed, your files are gone. If you have this service, you can just download them again, and all your files are back.

I agree though - Foldershare works great.

Seems like a cool version control solution... are files read-only for the people you share them with? If not, how does it handle the case where somebody wants to access/modify a file that's already being modified?

If you are concerned about privacy, upload your files as an encrypted (password) zip or rar files. Of course, in the case this project ever becomes public.

Rapidshare???

...without the 100MB file limit.

Or the wait times....

...or the nag screens

....or the graphical ads...

Wouldn't this be a massive undertaking? The article says "where users could eventually store 100 percent of their data." Granted I'm not a typical computer user and I have (2)250 GB Hard Drives as well as an 80 GB backup and countless DVDs burned with files no longer on any of my drives. Say I have 50% free space on all of my hard drives, this would mean Google would be storing 290 GB of my personal storage? Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of users.

I think it's more likely this is an internal project never to see the light of day, unless I'm misunderstanding something.

'could' does not mean the same as 'should'.

Sure it'll see the light of day. But what one envisions and what becomes reality are rarely identical.

Then again, one might also add to this the amount of storage some estimate Google already has, and the amount of free capital they have to buy more as needed.

290GB is definately *not* the average. I also doubt that *every* user will do so. (Common sense alone would disuade most from putting financial documents and such online).

The space they need only amounts to what is needed for the load.

They may offer you 2.5GB of email storage, but until *every* user *uses* 2.5GB, they don't actually need to *provide* all of that storage. ;)

.....just sayin'.

Well I hope it does see the light of day, if not soon then before I have kids and die a painful death.

Why does everyone incorporate Google with being evil?

They try to help us all out, and people think they're the anti-christ trying to know our entire lives. That's not what's going on, they're just trying to help.

Oh no, Google stores your e-mail. So does Yahoo!, Microsoft, your personal e-mail address for your site. Your hosting company could read your emails as well, and send it off to Microsoft themselves. You'd never know.

i dont think anyone think google is evil... u must have it mixed up with microsoft. and if google could make this thing for everbody, then i'll kiss my own balls (figurativly...)

Google is evil. Large corperations are that way.

BTW, Yahoo doesn't store your emails when their deleted. Google does (they even say so).

I'm wary of this GDrive due to the fact that anything stored on it can be viewed by Google Employees.I think I'll trust my "unreliable" hard drive over GDrive anyday (And I'm not having a go at Google specificly... I feel the same way about all online storage)

and anything I wanna backup gets FTPed to my website's storage... I got 25GB, and not all of it is accessable to the public.

"BTW, Yahoo doesn't store your emails when their deleted. Google does (they even say so)"

FUD, gmail gives you the ability to delete email right away. They PREFER you archive it so that they can improve their ad targetting but you can still get rid of it.

"I'm wary of this GDrive due to the fact that anything stored on it can be viewed by Google Employees"

1 word...encryption.

Why would anyone let google or anyone else have access to their info? It's bad enough to let them store all you email. WOW

Wasn't this along the same lines?

http://viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

No, that uses your 2.5gb of GMail space to store files up to 10mb in size (GMail's attachment limit) which is the biggest limit.

Google Drive would be made for storing files and would not have either of those limitations, it seems.

Gotta wonder exactly how much you'd be able to store... and it better be encrypted somehow, preferably with a password that I pick that is never stored on Google's servers.

I`ve sent 20 Megs attachments using plain gmail.

5MB is pushing it when sending to/from any e-mail service.

I used this program to before. Nov i use the Gmail Space extention of FireFox to put files on Gmail. Read about Gmail Space over here: http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2472

Not the same thing. Do you really think all the news sites are that stupid?

It's a limited (2.5GBspace , 10MB file limit)hack, not a service.

Google will, apparently, soon be offering the service.

Bring it on!!!!!!!!