By introducing their cloud storage service Google Drive, Google is set to give Apple’s iCloud and Microsoft’s Skydrive competition in winning consumers who are looking to save their personal and work data on the internet.
Introduced earlier this week, Google Drive offers users online cloud storage to create a backup of their data, which includes photographs, movies, music, documents and other file types. It allows users to gain access to this data from any other system or to transfer it without the use of an external drive. This step will certainly help Google expand its horizon and move beyond being just a search engine. Google Drive provides users 5GB of free data storage space. For those who are willing to pay for extra storage space, plans offering 25GB of space for $2.49, 100GB for $4.99 and 1TB for $49.99 per month are also available. Paid users will benefit from an expansion of their Gmail account by 25GB.
Google believes this service will make it easier for their users to manage several tasks online, with support for sharing photographs and editing and uploading documents on the web. Files and folders can also be shared by uploading them through other software programs. Google Drive also makes it possible for people to post comments while the user receives regular notifications for the same. It boasts of using character and image recognition technology that makes browsing easier.
With an efficiently working search bar, the aim is to make data available to users at all times. Google Drive can be run on Windows, Mac and works smoothly on Android devices as well. This service will soon be available to users of the iPhone. Drive applications are now available in the market for Android users. In addition to all this, Google Drive aims to make usage smoother for visually challenged consumers who can access the data with the help of programs that support screen reading.
One of the main competitors to Google Drive is Box.net, whose CEO Aaron Levie was quoted as saying that the company has worked very hard over the last seven years to build its enterprise customer base and that Google Drive will remain as a complement to mainstream services like its own. Further, he said that Google Drive will do well in the consumer arena, but will find it tough going in the enterprise sphere.
