Google Drive launches with 5GB of free cloud storage

Posted:
in iCloud edited January 2014
The long-rumored Google Drive service was officially launched on Tuesday, offering users 5 gigabytes of free cloud-based file storage.

In a post to the company's official blog, Google Drive was presented as a service that allows users to "create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff." It allows users to upload and access all file types, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and more.

The Google Drive application can also be installed on a Mac or Windows PC to sync files locally. A Drive application is now available for Google Android devices, while the company said it is "working hard" on a version of Drive for iOS devices.

For those who need more storage, Google offers 20 gigabytes for $5 per year, 80 gigabytes for $20, 200 gigabytes for $50, 400 gigabytes for $100, and one terabyte for $256.

Upgrading to a paid account will also give Gmail users a boost on their e-mail storage through Google to 25 gigabytes. Storage used in Gmail does not come out of space allotted for Google Drive.



In comparison, Apple's iCloud service, which launched last October, comes with 5 gigabytes for free, while users can buy an additional 10 gigabytes for $20 per year, 20 gigabytes for $40, or 50 gigabytes for $100.

Google said that Drive allows users to work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Using the new service, users can also share content easily, and add and reply to comments on anything, including PDFs, images, or video files.

Of course, the company's search technology is also a part of the package, granting the ability to search by keyword and filter by type, owner and more. Google Drive can also recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition technology.

Drive also ties in with other Google products, allowing users to attach photos from Drive to posts in the Google+ social networking service. Soon, users will also be able to attach files from Drive directly to e-mails in Gmail.

Google also boasted that drive is an "open platform," which will allow third-party developers to enable new features. Some of the additions mentioned by the company include the ability to send faxes, edit videos, and create website mockups.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    noahjnoahj Posts: 4,503member


    Here, place all your stuff here for us to rifle through... uh, I mean, to index and make accessible to you.  Heck we will even do OCR on your images so we can scrape every last bit of data from your files. All for you of course...


     


    Google, your service is interesting, I just wish I trusted you more...

  • Reply 2 of 33
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member


    For the paid options that's dramatically less expensive than Drop Box.

     

  • Reply 3 of 33
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member


    Since Apple is incurably bad at anything server side, this might be worth a look. And before anyone accuses me of trolling, my iCloud email has been playing up for weeks, and a movie I rented off iTunes yesterday took 7 hours to download.

  • Reply 4 of 33
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member


    iCloud email has indeed has some early outages—but that feature is more competing with GMail, not Google Drive.


     


    I prefer Apple to hold my data because keeping my data private is central to how they make money (i.e., giving thei customer a good product and a good experience).


     


    Whereas for Google, privacy is a necessary “evil” that works against how they make nearly all of their money (selling info about you to advertisers, directly or otherwise).


     


    Google’s profits are harmed by privacy. Apple’s profits are helped by it. I don’t question Google’s technical prowess, but I question whether they can be trusted today, next year, and in 5 years, to care about my privacy as much as I do.


     


    Plus I hate ads. I’m happy to let my phone company pay a subsidy to Apple for my iCloud privileges :)

  • Reply 5 of 33


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by NoahJ View Post


     


    Google, your service is interesting, I just wish I trusted you more...



     


     


    I agree.  When Gmail first came out, a friend of mine was very into it.  I told him that I wasn't comfortable with any third party using my email as a database.


     


    I don't trust any of these companies offereing cloud services.  With hard drives being as cheap as they are, I see little or no reason for third-party storage, unless the intent is to keep redundant copies off-site in an encrypted format, in case your house burns down or something.  Otherwise, I llike to keep my data safe at home.

  • Reply 6 of 33
    mrstepmrstep Posts: 511member


    Don't trust us? How about we charge you to go through your files if you want to upload more? Trust us now?


     


    No thanks, I'll let Spotlight index locally.

  • Reply 7 of 33
    normmnormm Posts: 653member


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    For those who need more storage, Google offers 20 gigabytes for $5 per year, 80 gigabytes for $20, 200 gigabytes for $50, 400 gigabytes for $100, and one terabyte for $256.


     


    According to Google's official blog announcement, 25GB costs $30/year, 100GB is $60/year and 1TB is $600/year.  I'm not sure where your numbers come from.


     


    EDIT:  As someone pointed out below, AI had the old prices, which were much better.


     

  • Reply 8 of 33
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member


    Seriously?  As if I'd really give Google access to my filesystem?  So they can, what?, index it to sell targeted ads about my content to third parties?

  • Reply 9 of 33
    just_mejust_me Posts: 590member


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by John.B View Post


    Seriously?  As if I'd really give Google access to my filesystem?  So they can, what?, index it to sell targeted ads about my content to third parties?



     


    You like viagra and birth control pills ads?

  • Reply 10 of 33


    The storage pricing is interesting. Right now, if you click to upgrade your storage, you're presented with the traditional options of 20GB for $5 and so on, not the ones Google specifies in their blog post. Since I already purchased the 20GB/$5 option a couple months ago, my Google Drive has 25GB of storage right now for a measly $5/year.


     


    I wonder if/when they'll change this. As of now, that is incredibly cheap for a ton of cloud storage. I'd recommend anyone considering using Google Drive to get the upgrade now instead of waiting.

  • Reply 11 of 33
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Planet Blue View Post


    The storage pricing is interesting. Right now, if you click to upgrade your storage, you're presented with the traditional options of 20GB for $5 and so on, not the ones Google specifies in their blog post. Since I already purchased the 20GB/$5 option a couple months ago, my Google Drive has 25GB of storage right now for a measly $5/year.


     


    I wonder if/when they'll change this. As of now, that is incredibly cheap for a ton of cloud storage. I'd recommend anyone considering using Google Drive to get the upgrade now instead of waiting.



     


    https://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2374993&topic=14940&ctx=topic


     


     













































    Storage

    Monthly Rate

    25 GB

    $2.49

    100 GB

    $4.99

    200 GB

    $9.99

    400 GB

    $19.99

    1 TB

    $49.99

    2 TB

    $99.99

    4 TB

    $199.99

    8 TB

    $399.99

    16 TB

    $799.99

     


     


    Obviously AppleInsider did not research the real costs of Google Drive storage. They offer monthly fees beyond the initial free 5 GB.

  • Reply 12 of 33


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by John.B View Post


    Seriously?  As if I'd really give Google access to my filesystem?  So they can, what?, index it to sell targeted ads about my content to third parties?



     


     


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


     


     


    You like viagra and birth control pills ads?



     




    I know, right?!   First, if you don't want ads, get an ad blocker.  I haven't seen ads on the internet in *years*.


     


    And if you're too lazy to get a free ad blocker, then would you rather that the ads you see be something you might actually be interested in?  Or just lots of dancing clowns advertising low low refinance rates?  (Do they still do dancing clowns?  *I don't know myself, because I use an ad blocker!*)


     


    ... oh, and AI:  I give it a "fail" on the new interface.  And what's with the major FB promotion - the "click here for FB" button was about 10 times larger than the "login" button!  Uck.

  • Reply 13 of 33
    just_mejust_me Posts: 590member


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Sierrajeff View Post


     


     


     


     


     




    I know, right?!   First, if you don't want ads, get an ad blocker.  I haven't seen ads on the internet in *years*.


     


    And if you're too lazy to get a free ad blocker, then would you rather that the ads you see be something you might actually be interested in?  Or just lots of dancing clowns advertising low low refinance rates?  (Do they still do dancing clowns?  *I don't know myself, because I use an ad blocker!*)


     


    ... oh, and AI:  I give it a "fail" on the new interface.  And what's with the major FB promotion - the "click here for FB" button was about 10 times larger than the "login" button!  Uck.



     


    AI wants to track you using FB.....but hey look pretty website.

  • Reply 14 of 33
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Sierrajeff View Post

    And what's with the major FB promotion - the "click here for FB" button was about 10 times larger than the "login" button!  Uck.


     


    Screen Shot 2012-04-24 at 3.55.35 PM.png

  • Reply 15 of 33
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member


    Where the f*** did you get that impression from what I wrote? 


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Sierrajeff View Post




    I know, right?!   First, if you don't want ads, get an ad blocker.  I haven't seen ads on the internet in *years*.


     


    And if you're too lazy to get a free ad blocker, then would you rather that the ads you see be something you might actually be interested in?  Or just lots of dancing clowns advertising low low refinance rates?  (Do they still do dancing clowns?  *I don't know myself, because I use an ad blocker!*)



     


     

  • Reply 16 of 33
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,153member


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by nagromme View PostI prefer Apple to hold my data because keeping my data private is central to how they make money (i.e., giving thei customer a good product and a good experience).


     


    Whereas for Google, privacy is a necessary “evil” that works against how they make nearly all of their money (selling info about you to advertisers, directly or otherwise).


     


    Google’s profits are harmed by privacy. Apple’s profits are helped by it. I don’t question Google’s technical prowess, but I question whether they can be trusted today, next year, and in 5 years, to care about my privacy as much as I do.


     


    Plus I hate ads. I’m happy to let my phone company pay a subsidy to Apple for my iCloud privileges :)



     


    You should spend a few minutes with Apple's Privacy Policy. Apple's clearly states they may share "non-personally identifiable" data with whoever they wish and for any reason. An example of that supposed anonymous data that may be shared for marketing/advertising purposes is information associated with a UDID. I suspect many here would not consider that non-personally identifiable.


     


    Tim Cook went even further recently. In a March 8th letter to Congress responding to privacy concerns and questions they had ordered Mr Cook to answer:


    "We do not share personally identifiable information with 3rd parties for their marketing purposes, absent consent" How does an Apple user give consent for targeted marketing by 3rd parties using personally identifiable information gathered and sold/shared by Apple from your use of their services? 


     


    Things are not always as they seem. 

  • Reply 17 of 33
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    ... the ability to send faxes...


     


    That is sooo 1982


     

  • Reply 18 of 33
    felix01felix01 Posts: 294member


    If Dropbox doesn't get their extra storage prices in line with what Google is charging, I'll be switching if this proves to be fast and demonstrates reliable uptime. Anything I store in an offsite cloud goes into an encrypted folder anyway so I'm not worried about Google data mining my files.


     


    Now if the 1Password folks start supporting Google Drive, life will be good.


     


    BTW, has anyone activated it yet? When I went through the process (https://drive.google.com/start), I got a pop-up informing me that I'd get an e-mail when Google Drive had been activated on the account. So then I tried signing up a new Google account and was offered the opportunity to activate Google Drive immediately (on that account).

  • Reply 19 of 33
    jjm3jjm3 Posts: 6member


     


    I've used my iDisk pretty much daily since January 2000 when its first version premiered. Seeing that icon pop up on my desktop has always delighted me. I use it a lot for personal backups and storage and file sharing, and a lot for my freelance work as well. Even though I'm making other arrangements for my important data that's backed up up there, I know I'll still be using my iDisk until the day they turn it off this summer.


     


    I hope Apple opens up some sort of iCloud-related replacement for it (apart from the in the cloud options that some iCloud-aware apps already have).

  • Reply 20 of 33
    My DropBox account now has 12.8GB of storage absolutely FREE. Thanks to a beta programme they are running. I find iCloud to be absolutely useless compared to Google Apps and DropBox and I don't have to install Lion to make it work either.
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