Internet giant Google has launched its GDrive, the company’s new cloud-based online storage service, to compete offerings by Apple, Microsoft and Dropbox and other cloud storage services.
The online storage service will allow users to load photos, documents and videos into the company’s servers.
Google Drive is expected to offer 5GB of free storage space to the customers, and charge for additional storage space up to 100GB with monthly price plans available for various levels of capacity.
Google vice president for Chrome and Apps Sundar Pichai told AFP, "The model is really designed at the core to help people live their lives in the cloud,"
Google product manager Scott Johnston said in the company blogpost that with the new Drive one can upload and access all your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.
"As a business user, you can share files or folders with specific people, your entire team, or even customers and partners outside your company, controlling who can view or make edits,"Johnston said.
Google’s "cloud storage" offering is expected to include enhanced search engine or support for online editing, which will enable users to save and load pictures, notes, and other files directly from Gdrive and access them from any Web-connected device.
GDrive could incorporate features of the Google Docs online word-processing application allowing users edit their ducuments in a Web browser and also could give the access of the document to edit them allowing people to create and collaborate on documents.
The online storage drive has been designed for Windows and Macintosh computers as well as smartphones or tablets and it will be powered Android software while a version for Apple mobile gadgets will be released soon.
The Drive recognizes text in scanned documents through the use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology allowing users to upload a scanned image of an old newspaper clipping and retrieve it when required.
"Open more than 30 file types right in your browser — including HD video, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop — even if you don’t have the corresponding program installed on your computer,"Johnston said.
Google’s Drive will compete with Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Apple’s iCloud and Web-based file hosting service such as Dropbox and SugarSync.
