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GMail Drive Shell Extension

Posted by michael on from the oh-the-horror dept.

krmpradeep writes "GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium. GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to."

16 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. For Linux too! by x4A6D74 · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://richard.jones.name/google-hacks/gmail-files ystem/gmail-filesystem.html

    Haven't tried it yet; I keep meaning to but school keeps getting in the way.

  2. Nice, but doomed by BristolCream · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This won't last long. One of the reaosns Google and others can offer so much space is that they're confident that it won't be used.

    1. Re:Nice, but doomed by Sneeper · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually Gmail *does* have a file size limit to incoming e-mails. As one person on the GMAIL Drive Forums states:

      It appears that Google has put a file size limit on "attachments". I've installed GMail Drive and tried a couple quick uploads. One was a tar.bz2 file that weighs in at 23MB. After dragging the file over to the GMail Drive window, it worked for a while then returned an error message stating that "File is too big. GMail does currently not support files larger than 10 Mb."

      The response confirms:

      Great point Steve. GMail does have an attachment size limit which does limit the usefulness of these file system extensions. One solution would be to handle file splitting in the tool.

      I don't have a gmail account, but anyone who does should be able to easily confirm this.

    2. Re:Nice, but doomed by PayPaI · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, it's not really absurd. Base-64 encoding increases file size by something like 3/2. If you do not use base-64 encoding, then your files may become corrupted in transit.

    3. Re:Nice, but doomed by eMartin · · Score: 5, Funny

      They might have even tolerrated the few Windows users that would actually use it, but now that the Slashdot floodgates are open...

  3. Works as advertised by erick99 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Jeeze, pretty amazing. Downloaded the filed, installed it, and was transferring files in less than 60 seconds. No kidding! Files transfer faster than when I email the same sized attachment which is pretty nice. When you click/double-click on the drive it opens like any other drive/folder window and you see the files that are stored there. A free gig of off-site storage. I haven't tried to transfer something bigger than the 10MB attachment limit yet, but I will give it a shot. A great app!

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
    1. Re:Works as advertised by erick99 · · Score: 5, Informative

      10MB limit applies. Oh well, still very cool.

      --
      http://www.busyweather.com/
  4. I can see it now... by MajorG17 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just wait until someone invites themself for 120 GMail addresses... then 1000... then starts SHARING terabytes of copyrighted data... eah, this may not last long.

  5. Don't be evil by philipkd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    okay, so how does google respond to this.

    I think they just have to throw their hands up and go, okay, fine 1GB virtual drive for ppl, how to best make money off of it?

    Could they analyze your files and serve ads related to it? If you put up an mp3, could they upsell albums related to it?

    If you upload a text document describing to your girlfriend your favorite lingerie, could they flash an adsense for Victoria's Secret?

    If you have an excel spread sheet describing mission-critical CRMs, could they analyze those and start throwing ads related to that?

    --

    Philosophistry

  6. Abusing Google? by adolfojp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    GMail is an excellent web mail service. In fact, it is the best one that I have ever used. They pay for the service and make a profit by pasting ads on their webmail site.

    If we use GMail in this fashion, not only are we abusing their trust but also dooming the service and perhaps destroying it.


    Cheers,

    Adolfo

  7. For Slashdot Too! by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Slashdot-Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Slashdot login, allowing you to use Slashdot as a storage medium. Slashdot-Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Slashdot account using a combination of the read-write Journal pages and the unlimited write-once comment fields. Slashdot-drive enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your Slashdot account directly from inside Windows Explorer. Slashdot-Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.

    It offers high availability, and unlimited amounts of file storage.

    Slashdot-drive uses hundreds of slash-dot logins mappens in a raid-0/raid-1 fashion to assure low latency and redundancy in case you are discovered. In the event an account is locked or deleted, SLASHDOT drive automaticaly rebuilds lost raid partiions in new accounts.

    Data is stored in ascii-mapping or using the optional stealth-mode which decreaces storage density but improves undetectability by using phrases taken from other posts to encode a data stream,

    The downside is that it essentially destroys a useful public good by filling its pages with gibberish and causing OSDN to bear unacceptable server costs. But who cares becaue you are an arrogant prick

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:For Slashdot Too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "The downside is that it essentially destroys a useful public good by filling its pages with gibberish"

      And this makes a difference how exactly?

      (take this post I've just made for an example)

    2. Re:For Slashdot Too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      > GMail isn't a "public good", it's a marketing
      > gimmick created by a company trying to get
      > market share.

      Tell that to the tens of thousands of people who already depend on gMail as their primary email. What are they called again? Oh yes, the "public." And would you say they regard a huge free email account as something "bad" or something "good"?

      There are so many companies who do bad things right and left, and that deserve to get kicked in the teeth. Google continually offers innovative projects that vastly improve the public good; why spend energy kicking them in the teeth, too?

      On another matter, the original post about a Slashdot drive was the funniest and most insightful post I've read here in months.

  8. Re:Web Server by hobo2k · · Score: 5, Funny

    Those crazy guys at google have already done the work for you! Your gmail network drive can be accessed through the web at gmail.google.com!!

  9. others already offer this without hack by F�an�ro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here in Germany we have a free mail provider (GMX) that offers 1 GB (since a few months), for mails AND for files, and you can access them as a file system(link to German site) using the open WebDAV protocol from linux, windows or mac, so no ugly hacks are neccesary. (Konqueror can do that out-of-the-box, I think)

    Also offers free pop and smtp, mail forwarding, and configurable filters

    Interface is in German only, and you have to give them an existing German, Austrian or Swiss postal address when you sign up. (but those could theoretically be found on the net.)

  10. Actually, by acariquara · · Score: 5, Funny

    I believe most files posted would be modded at least +3, Insightful...

    --
    Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all