Google Slips Talk of Online Storage Service

sonsonete writes "Reuters reports that Google is preparing to offer online storage, according to company documents that were mistakenly released on the Web. From the piece: 'The existence of the previously rumored GDrive online storage service surfaced after a blogger discovered apparent notes in a slide presentation by Google executives published on Google's site after its analysts presentation day last Thursday.'"

Google's Plans

[sepharious]

I've said it before and I'll continue to say it, Google has BIG plans that everyone is not piecing together. Long story short, I expect to see Google linux sometime within two years (I'd wager this year). This distro will be intimately linked with the online side of Google for storage and software. This will mean that you can go from your PC at home to any webbrowser on the face of the planet and have all of your information as it would be on your own desktop. ALSO, there's a possiblity of seeing something like Sun has where you can have a desktop open with programs, web pages, and files and then go to another PC and have the same desktop open from either a webbrowser or a future version of Google desktop. What do you think all those mobile computing boxes and dark fiber are for? It's all to make Google local to everyone and very very fast. Wait and see.

Re:Why give everything to google?

[Reality Master 101]

Obviously Paranoids won't bother to use this service.

But for the rest of us, the idea of a cheap online backup (or even free, which would Rock Hard) of our ENTIRE hard drive would be very, very nice. It would be cool if Google provided automatic encryption, but I wouldn't care if they didn't.

in addition

[sepharious]

dont forget the Google PC rumors with Walmart [slashdot.org], I'm willing to bet that this will happen or something close to it and what we will see is a computer that boots in less than 30sec (a very stripped down and fast linux distro, perhaps on CF or equivalent) and then jumps onto a highspeed net connection to get on the Google network for software and files. Expect to pay less than $200 for this if they do it, because that will be the way to bring down The Beast. [http]

Re:It slipped out

[ROOK*CA]

Personally I'd probably use something like this to backup all my media files (Songs, Movies, Audiobooks, etc.,) In which case who cares if it ends up all over the Internet, Sharing is good, sharing MP3's, well that's even better. :)

GMail is already online storage

[digitaldc]

2GB to be exact, the only drawback is that Google can read each and every one of your emails.
When you learn that fact, it makes it less attractive.

Re:Mr. and Mrs. Reboot

[truthsearch]

Windows [msversus.org] runs the hard drive far more intensely than Unix/Linux on a standard desktop. Unix usually uses free memory for disk caching much more than Windows. So in another swipe at Windows I suggest you ditch it.

Rapid sharing?

[RyoShin]

One has to wonder what, if any, restrictions Google has in place to keep GDrive from becoming a file sharing network, assuming it will actually come out.

Even if shares are only 2 GB (about the size of their e-mail accounts), that's still enough for at least one good-quality movie, or 100+ high quality MP3s. All one would need to do is set up a drive and disseminate the login info.

And what about legit use? I rip all my CDs to MP3s (because changing CDs when you get tired of them is a nuisance). My business allows me to store MP3s on my computer for personal use, but I cannot bring a flash drive or other writeable media (including CD-Rs) into the workplace. (Yes, having internet access kind of dilutes this, but I digress.) It would be easier for me to upload as many songs as possible and download them at work instead of trying to convince someone that my flash drive just has MP3s on it.

Maybe they can outright ban certain file types- mp3s, avis, etc. Of course, there's nothing stopping someone from uploading it as spiderman3.doc. And what about the college student that wants to upload a class lecture for later listening or sharing?

If this becomes a reality, it would be interesting to see how they work it.

As apps go online, does plain storage lose value?

[lux55]

Let's see if they add much in the way of web-based features (ie. more than just a download and "email this file" UI), or if it's just like other traditional services. For my opinion of why over time, people will want more than that (although most people will use a service from someone as large as Google anyway):

http://www.putfwd.com/index/news-app/story.35/titl e.an-online-file-storage-manifesto [putfwd.com]

Let's hope for at least a developer API so external apps can integrate with it.

GDrive FileSystem

[Anonymous Coward]

What would be cool is if GDrive could actually be mounted as a filesystem; obviously would require some client installation. So that (say) Windows users would see a Z: that maps to the online storage (and Linux users would be able to mount in any which way). That way, eg., I could have my CVS/SVN repository created on the online filesystem and access it from anywhere. Or maybe install a program on the online filesystem so that it can be accessed from any PC (Windows users would need some way to synch the registry I would imagine).

Re:Encryption

[Firehed]

I never said they couldn't get the password, I just said they'd need it. I'm sure it would be a lot less trouble for them to just take your machine in full due to whatever law that was they put in place, rather than drag you off to Egypt to force out the password. Because if they did that, they'd probably have to kill you - if you're geeky enough to encrypt your files (not especially, but still enough), I'm sure you'd post the incident on every forum you're a member of (or livejournal or whatever, or maybe upload the shot you got off your cameraphone to Flickr). IIRC, they can steal your computer and not even tell you for two months what happened or why (or perhaps longer, but it's not as if you're not going to notice that you're computer's gone missing); you might go on the assumption you've been burgled until it shows up in a battered USPS box on your front steps.

What does Google get out of this?

[babbling]

This is a nice idea, and could be a good tool, assuming it is done with Google's usual user-friendly simple UIs.

My only concern is what Google hope to achieve by storing my data. Letting their machines data-mine my email to show ads is fair enough, but what do they hope to get out of providing this service? Unless they intend to do something a bit dodgy (eg. sell it to governments), it's difficult to see many ways in which they could use my data to their benefit.

I suppose they could just see what their advertising engines can do with the data, but I really can't see them mining gigabytes of data for each user! Maybe filenames will be helpful.

Re:Encryption

[vhogemann]

Better yet,

This theoretical GDrive could encrypt your files automagically, this way only YOU from YOUR COMPUTER should be able to view them. Google can skip all these legal problems claiming that they just provide the storage, but doesnt have acess to the contents of the files.

Of couse GDrive will send some meta-information about the files to feed Googles TextAds, probably the same info that GoogleDesktop send, and keep some kind of hash to identify identical files, in order to save server storage.

Just my $0.2

Future

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see the big deal if Google does read some documents, or information about me. It is an awesome opportunity, to see what they got, and to see if they can offer me products based on information about me. I would much rather have advertisements that attracted me, instead of everyone in the world. No more annoying adds about stuff I don't care about, just things I find relevant. Embrace technology.

Re:Why give everything to google?

[Breakfast Pants]

You know, if you ever get divorced you can at least wipe your porn off of your computers in case that comes up as an issue. It isn't clear that you will be able to do so with such a service from Google. Also, every bit of communication you made with your extra-marital lover over gtalk will be available as well (I know, I know, you can opt out of this bit).

Encryption plugin

[tacokill]

So who is going to be the first to create a plug-in that auto-encrypts what it sends and auto-decrypts what it receives - from Google?

That would be sweet to have client side encryption "built in" to whatever the client ends up being. But from the sound of this article, it's probably more like "hacked in" instead of "built in". After all, Google wants to READ what you store....

Re:It slipped out

[GigsVT]

That raises an interesting possibility. If you upload a file to Google that they already have in someone else's gDrive, there's no need for them to keep two copies of it.

Reminds me of way back when on AOL when AOL would store internal email attachments on their servers. "Pirating" something just meant forwarding an email with the attachment that never hit your local computer, drastically reducing the time required since everyone was on slow modems back then.

It will be funny when the first SHA or MD5 collision hits though, they'll have to be very careful with that if they go with a system like this to reduce redundant file storage.

Google Live CD

[this great guy]

And here is the quicker: Google could do that by releasing their Linux Distribution on a Live CD. Users would not even have to install Linux, instead they would merely boot on this Live CD. The environment would be heavily linked to the on-line Google services, and users could edit/modify/save their document transparently over the Internet.

Re:Rapid sharing? - It's being done as we speak

[Kru)(fen]

I work at a reasonably big email provider (about 5 million emails a day).

Lately we have noticed a rise on average used space. The reason is that there is a new boy in town: Peer2Mail is one (amongst many) programs that allows users to share (huge) files from free email accounts.

These users gather in forums dedicated to sharing the info of email accounts + passwords + files on them. They sometimes have a caste system, where some are uploaders, others are "account creators", etc. I have seen posts of young boys who created 400 e-mail accounts in 2 days.

Once the accounts are created, they share their numbers and passwords with the uploaders. They go to a gmail account, set half a dozen of other accounts to receive forwarded copies of everything that reaches it, and voila! instant multiple copies of gamez, pr0n and everything you can imagine is shared with the world through a forum.

The problem is, what is the boundary between the mail provider's responsibility of what is being stored there, and the right of the users, who are getting the email service for free, to severely cripple the services, when 20GB of mail is delivered to 30 e-mail accounts to be checked for viruses, parsed to verify if it isn't spam, etc?

Peer2Mail is already there, the question now is how we must deal with it.

Re:Encryption

[vhogemann]

This metadata can be mined localy, at your computer, before your files are encypted and sent to their servers. This way they will be also sparing their server time, using your machine to process the metadata needed to feed TextAds.

Re:Here's why...

[Reality Master 101]

just because you delete it doesn't mean *they* will delete it - think documents you might regret seeing in court.

If I had anything that sensitive, I would encrypt it anyway.

why do you think Google is going to give you free storage? They aren't benevolent, they are using your data to make a quick buck. Do you really want them to aggregate your life based off your data so they can advertise to you?

I didn't say it would definitely be free, but if it would, sure, let them advertise for me. It would be totally worth it for a free backup.

you don't know who will have access to your data.

Like I said, Paranoids won't be interested in this service. I'm not particularly paranoid, so I'm not too worried about it. Do you worry about who might be breaking into your office at night to read your docs?

is it really worth having your data out of your hands? You can get 16x dual layer DVD burners for $24.00. Media is pretty cheap too nowadays. Back it up yourself and don't feed the Google Monster, don't worry about your private life coming back to haunt you.

Definitely worth it. First of all, a DVD is only 4.7GB, which ain't much these days. Second of all, you have to DO IT. That's always the achilles heal of backups. I should say that my current backup strategy is to use Connected Online Backup, which does it for me automatically every night. It's a good service, but it doesn't do my whole drive.

Re:Encryption

[jrockway]

> makes the data much harder to index

1) Upload
2) Index
3) Compress
4) Encrypt.

Problem solved.

This could be workable...

[BalkanBoy]

IFF

a) I can encrypt my data locally, prior to transferring it to GDrive
b) I can decrypt my data locally, after transferring it from GDrive
c) it all has to happen rather transparently

I suppose you could use AES for encryption, or public/private key encryption, not sure what either type of encryption would buy you. Come to think of it, PGP.com has a product that does this already, PGPdisk - if they can emulate that in some way, that would be swell...

None of this is going to work if they're hoping to "scan" the user data in any imaginable way (for whatever purpose, advertising or not). No one will go for that, I'm like 99% sure, except those without a stinkin' clue or those who truly do not care about privacy.

Good for Web Apps

[moria]

With more and more functional Web APIs available, there is this surge in Web-based consumer applications. However, there is no central storage APIs, and Web Apps tend to use their own storage scheme. It's bad for users, who now have his information scattered around the web, and who tend to forget where he has stored certain information. It's much more serious than the password problems in the sense that users can use the same password for all the websites he visits. With Google and probably Yahoo to provide general storage APIs, we may soon able to store documents [writely.com] and notes [writeboard.com] to G drive or Y drive when C drive is not an option for Web Apps. And we may soon be able to export my web calendar to these web drives and switch to another web calendar service provider. Bookmark synchronization extension can then be so easy and universal. Much much more importantly, there could be better integration of web applications with this central storage as the glue. With a file system-alike, probably the Web OS reality is emerging finally.

Google Firefox

[vinn01]

Not only Google Linux..

Prediction: Google will create it's own version of Firefox with one distinguishing feature: no address bar.

Google hates the address bar. They want everything to go through their search box (like the Google toolbar). Solution: get rid of the address bar. Have the search box do an automatic "I feel lucky" search if you type in a URL.

Watch the Google ad revenue grow when Google knows every URL that you type, in addition to your every search.