Google Unofficially Announces GDrive By Leaked Code

An anonymous reader writes "Google has unofficially announced the GDrive by source code. In an in-direct way, Google has publicly advertised the new, much-anticipated online storage drive called the GDrive. If you take a look at the source code of some javascript within the Google Pack, you will clearly see the GDrive referenced. The code categorizes the GDrive as an 'Online file backup and storage' device. It also provides the following descriptions; 'GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents' and 'GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device — be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.'"

Comments

what happens if google folds

[timmarhy]

don't think big trusted names can't fold. and if it happens, how will you get this data? i would advise extreme caution on what you use this for.

Re:what happens if google folds

[mlts]

TrueCrypt is an excellent solution, its only drawback is that you have to specify fixed-size containers. Because the GDrive won't be NTFS, you can't use TC's sparse file option. There are some ways of making containers that can expand to fill up whatever quota Google gives a person:

If on Linux, you could use EncFS.

OS X can use EncFS + FUSE, or one can use the Disk Image tool and create a sparse bundle image which is in actuality a directory with 8MB files (called bands) under it. When something is changed, only the relevant changes to that 8MB band are propagated, which both allows for the image to dynamically expand and be easily backed up. You can also use PGP and PGPDisk. So, you have three good options.

With Windows you will need a commercial solution: PGPDisk creates expanding drive images that expand as files are saved to them.

There are other options too. You can use 7Zip, WinRAR, or PKZip for decent (AES-128) encryption for archives and store those.

Security

[nz17]

I know that Google is all about introducing new (usually useful) services which tie into its already existing sites and services, and for that I applaud it. However I hope that it takes privacy, security, and encryption into account for this new online storage service. It's one thing to do a search with Google's engine - trusting Google with personal files is another issue entirely.

Also, here's hoping for a rich desktop client instead of just a Web interface.

Re:Sounds Good.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dm_crypt

Give them my data? Not bloody likely. Poke around with some free storage for non-critical applications? Sure, sounds fun.

Not as surprise

[inKubus]

Duplicity, a clever backup tool, has let you use Gmail boxes for a storage engine for a while now. I'm sure they are just taking the next logical step. Of course, you can assume that they will probably index your files in some way, even if it isn't made public.

Misplaced priorities?

[bogaboga]

I know this is not officially released by Google but I would rather have Google get Gmail out of beta. My school would like to move to Gmail but the "beta" label is a show stopper on this front. What do you think?

Re:Misplaced priorities?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

If you pay for Gmail ("Google Apps for business") it isn't beta, and it has an SLA and whatnot. Gmail's interpretation of "beta" seems roughly the same as all the other free webmail services' interpretation of their default release states, so it isn't as though Google is really behind in that area. If "beta" is just a scary word, ignore it. If you are waiting to get enterprise SLAs for no money, forget it.

Re:Misplaced priorities?

[Creepy Crawler]

My water-damaged discarded 333MHz file server has a better uptime than Google SLA provides.

They only offer at most 95% per month, MINUS pre-scheduled downtimes, and non-scheduled downtimes that are "exempt". Honestly, 90% uptime per month real. The key is that these numbers are not real, because of the possible exemptions and everything, so a real SLA is unknown.

Re:Misplaced priorities?

[rriven]

They only offer at most 95% per month, MINUS pre-scheduled downtimes, and non-scheduled downtimes that are "exempt". Honestly, 90% uptime per month real. The key is that these numbers are not real, because of the possible exemptions and everything, so a real SLA is unknown.

You could not be more wrong:

Enterprise-class service â" Google Apps includes a 99.9% uptime SLA.* Phone support is available for critical issues.

*The 99.9% uptime SLA for Google Apps is offered to organizations using Google Apps Premier Edition, as described in the Google Apps Premier Edition Terms of Service

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/messaging.html

Sure it is only 3 nines but that is way better than the 90% you said

Re:Misplaced priorities?

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's Google's SLA. They have to give you free credit if their uptime is worse than 99.9%:

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/terms/sla.html

Three nines. Not 95%.

Re:Misplaced priorities?

[Anonymous Coward]

You clearly didn't follow the asterisk in the page that you quoted to the actual SLA.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/terms/sla.html

This is not a normal SLA. "Downtime" is measured as a function of error rate for ALL users, not just you. If one customer is out of service, it's not downtime.

Downtime is also measured in blocks of ten minutes. If you are without email for 9 minutes 30 seconds, then your inbox loads, then it goes down for a further 9 minutes, there was no downtime.

With terms like that, Google can claim whatever uptime they want.

Also note that the only recourse you have in the event that things go so badly that the agreement is violated is a longer service term at no cost (Maximum 15 days). No refunds.

Yeah, Right.

[Kid Zero]

...and it's all online, so that when the government decides to datamine your life, Google will just send it over without bothering you.

Re:Yeah, Right.

[rossifer]

btw, anyone using google can be tapped by the US (or any local) gov. google replicates data all over the world and so any local DC can be 'tapped' by the gov in that region and google will be happy to roll over. giving data to google is not something you do when you need privacy, we should know THAT much by now. google has already tipped their hand more times than needed to see the true 'rollover to the gov' colors they have.

I work for Google. In a project closely related to "GDrive". And I know for an absolute fact that you, sir, are full of shit. Google is the one company that has stood up to our government's "requests for information" and said, "Show me the subpoena." Hell, that's one of the big reasons I work at Google. As for your privacy, the only entities that can see the actual content of your files are 1) you, 2) the ads analysis program, 2) Google developers/system maintenance staff who sign a blood oath that they will not violate user trust, and 3) government agencies that provide a lawful warrant or subpoena for the data. The moment that list fails to be complete, a significant fraction of all Google employees will leave in disgust.

GMail File Shell extension

[flogger]

I've been using the GMail Drive Shell Extansion for quite a while now. Google must have liked it as well.

Re:GMail File Shell extension

[flogger]

Recently? Sure have. I use it twice a day at least. Used it just now. Every couple of months, google changes something. Just check http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm and an update is usually there the next day. I have a drive mapped to it on work machines. Nice stuff.

Re:Gmailfs

[John Hasler]

Description: Use your GMail account as a filesystem
  GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem which uses your Gmail
  account as its storage medium. GmailFS is a Python application and
  uses the FUSE userland filesystem infrastructure to help provide the
  filesystem, and libgmail to communicate with Gmail.

Enough with the evil Google routine

[Enderandrew]

How did you get modded informative?

When Bush was talking about wanting search data for all US citizens, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL handed it over without even really being asked. Google refused, and said they would not hand over any search data unless they were forced to do so by a court of law. Google has also since decided to anonymize their logs sooner and increase their privacy policies.

The only time Google has handed data over to a government agency was one case in Brazil, when they were forced to do so by a court, and even then, they didn't do it immediately when they were first ordered to do so. And that case was when Google had evidence on a child porn ring who distributed child porn via Orkut.

So please, explain to me how can you justify statements with no basis on fact?

Re:gdrive.com

[LiENUS]

Gmail doesn't use Gmail.com.

It doesnt?

Domain Name: GMAIL.COM
Registrar: MARKMONITOR INC.
Whois Server: whois.markmonitor.com
Referral URL: http://www.markmonitor.com/
Name Server: NS1.GOOGLE.COM

Weird. Did you perhaps mean gmail doesn't exclusively use gmail.com?

Re:Ads and Encryption

[Anonymous Coward]

I email encrypted files through gmail almost every day.

Re:Like xdrive and idrive before it

[stonedcat]

You betcha!

Unimportant porn gets deleted much more quickly than important porn, but this way it can stick around a little longer.

Re:The Google service I'm still waiting for ...

[maelstrom]

http://pages.google.com/

Re:Obvious

[Dhalka226]

If by "closer to official" you mean "closer to Beta" which for Google means "yeah, it's official, we just cannot claim it's 100% without flaw"

Nobody claims something is 100% without flaw. Read your licenses, disclaimers and terms of service sometime. Google's "beta" products work better and more consistently than most of the "real" releases out there, regardless of what they choose to call it.

I suppose this was just meant to be another "zomg all of Google is in beta!" joke, which hasn't been particularly funny for years. Kudos on somehow getting an interesting mod for it.

Re:Gmailfs

[skeeto]

Eh, I have found it to be horrendesly slow and quite unreliable, as the files I put in frequently come back out differently.

Privacy Concerns?

[malevolentjelly]

If you want a couple gigabytes of online storage for free that's got a multi-platform client for regular syncing, you can already have it:

https://spideroak.com/

At least these guys encrypt your data instead of processing and farming it for marketing data and advertising cues. Ugh. What part of our lives aren't we going to hand over to google?