Google stepped up competition with Apple and Microsoft in cloud
computing, enabling users to store documents, audio clips and videos
through a Web connection.
The Google Drive service, which began Tuesday, gives users online storage similar to a hard drive's, allowing access to files from computers and other devices, said Sundar Pichai, Google senior vice president. As much as 5 gigabytes of cloud-based storage is provided free, while users may pay $2.49 a month for 25 gigabytes and higher fees for more.
Google's service helps the company expand beyond its search engine and query-based advertising. Apple has a similar offering called iCloud, while Microsoft provides one called SkyDrive. Google says its service will encourage users to spend more time online with features that, among other things, enable creation of Web-based documents and sharing of photographs.
"Drive is something we intend to be at the center of our users' online experience," Pichai said. "We see this as a primary place for people to go to create and collaborate and live in the cloud across devices and across applications and have their important data available to them seamlessly."
Users can put a Google Drive folder on multiple computers, including those that run on Windows, Macintosh or Android programs. Any document, photo or other file that is dragged onto the folder becomes accessible from almost anywhere, such as from an Android phone or tablet. Google says compatibility with Apple's iPhone will be added to the service soon.
Once a file is stored, the files can be shared with others or discussed online. In addition, Google Drive is open to third-party applications so users can create, open and share files from a variety of other software programs.
Google intends to make stored files easily searchable. Users can search by using a keyword, as when they use the search engine. The word could be anything from the title of the file to a term in the text of a scanned newspaper article.
The Google Drive service, which began Tuesday, gives users online storage similar to a hard drive's, allowing access to files from computers and other devices, said Sundar Pichai, Google senior vice president. As much as 5 gigabytes of cloud-based storage is provided free, while users may pay $2.49 a month for 25 gigabytes and higher fees for more.
Google's service helps the company expand beyond its search engine and query-based advertising. Apple has a similar offering called iCloud, while Microsoft provides one called SkyDrive. Google says its service will encourage users to spend more time online with features that, among other things, enable creation of Web-based documents and sharing of photographs.
"Drive is something we intend to be at the center of our users' online experience," Pichai said. "We see this as a primary place for people to go to create and collaborate and live in the cloud across devices and across applications and have their important data available to them seamlessly."
Users can put a Google Drive folder on multiple computers, including those that run on Windows, Macintosh or Android programs. Any document, photo or other file that is dragged onto the folder becomes accessible from almost anywhere, such as from an Android phone or tablet. Google says compatibility with Apple's iPhone will be added to the service soon.
Once a file is stored, the files can be shared with others or discussed online. In addition, Google Drive is open to third-party applications so users can create, open and share files from a variety of other software programs.
Google intends to make stored files easily searchable. Users can search by using a keyword, as when they use the search engine. The word could be anything from the title of the file to a term in the text of a scanned newspaper article.
