Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Close To Launching Cloud Storage 'Google Drive'

Posted by timothy on from the when-gdrive-isn't-good-enough-for-you dept.

MrSeb writes with this selection from ExtremeTech: "Why doesn't Google offer a cloud storage service to rival Dropbox, Box.net, or Microsoft's SkyDrive? Google has the most internet-connected servers in the world, the largest combined storage of any web company, and already offers photo storage (Picasa), document storage (Docs), music storage (Music), but for some reason it has never offered a unified Google Drive. According to people familiar with the matter, however, our wait is almost over: Google's Hard Drive In The Sky is coming soon, possibly 'within weeks.' Feature-wise, it sounds like Google Drive will be comparable to Dropbox, with free basic storage (5GB?) and additional space for a yearly fee."

51 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Yay! by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 3, Insightful

    More ways for Google to know what you're doing. Will they be scanning your documents? Checking the artist names of the songs you have there and target ads related to them? What about <fill in your own scenario here>?

    1. Re:Yay! by equex · · Score: 4, Insightful

      just encrypt the files with AES256 before you upload.

      --
      Can I light a sig ?
    2. Re:Yay! by jimicus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The masses have spoken. They don't care.

    3. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I imagine storing a 5GB Truecrypt volume would result in ads for tinfoil hats :)?

    4. Re:Yay! by Pascal+Sartoretti · · Score: 5, Interesting

      More ways for Google to know what you're doing. Will they be scanning your documents? Checking the artist names of the songs you have there and target ads related to them?

      I don't understand why this has been flagged as "Flamebait", it is the central question for such a service : would Google analyze your documents to provide targeted advertisement, or would they treat your "GDrive" as a black box ?

      The former would not be acceptable for many persons (including me), but the latter would provide no upside for Google....

    5. Re:Yay! by masternerdguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh goodie! Maybe the government will think you're a terrorist then!

      --
      To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
    6. Re:Yay! by masternerdguy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Didn't we run a story last week about how the FBI considered VPN usage suspicious activity?

      --
      To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
    7. Re:Yay! by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Personally, I'm happy paying for monthly hosting services that allow me to just have proper WebDav, SSH, or FTP access to storage space. This type of technology is much more accessible. You can do the same thing with rsync and ssh as you can do with DropBox. Plus a system that relies on standard transfer protocols makes it much easier to switch providers whenever a better deal comes along. My hosting provider gives me 50 GB of storage to do with as I please. That's separate from the space I'm allowed to use for my website.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    8. Re:Yay! by justforgetme · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, they might be right on the money actually.
      All the banks and investment firms I know use VPNs!

      --
      -- no sig today
    9. Re:Yay! by RazzleFrog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously? You don't think Microsoft (creator of Bing) and Apple (creator if iWorldDomination) can search through and make money off your information. Oh how naive.

    10. Re:Yay! by blueg3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I drives people to use Google more? The same could be said of Picasa or Docs. In Docs, in particular, Google does not appear to do anything with the contents of your documents (there's not even advertising on the Docs page), and that's a much easier situation for them than if they're providing storage.

      ...the latter would provide no upside for Google...

      That would imply that a service like Dropbox, which doesn't do advertising at all, could not possibly make money off of offering cloud storage, yet they do.

    11. Re:Yay! by chrb · · Score: 3, Interesting

      would Google analyze your documents to provide targeted advertisement

      There is another big question - would they analyze your documents to prevent copyright infringement? I predict that, within a few years, Dropbox and the other big U.S. based services are going to be rejecting storage of files that match known pirated movies, video games etc. This is obviously one danger of using a de-duplicating cloud drive service. You could try using client-side encryption, but I have read that Dropbox either prohibit client-side encryption in their terms or drop customers that use it extensively, as it breaks their file de-duplicating model and they therefore have to provide many times more disk space and bandwidth for these customers.

      the latter would provide no upside for Google

      Sure it would. In the battle for mindshare, if a customer uses Google Drive, then they are inside the Google services sphere. If there is a service that Google doesn't offer, then some customers are going to go elsewhere, and the next time that customer wants to embrace some new service, they will be a bit less likely to choose Google.

    12. Re:Yay! by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Informative

      You could try using client-side encryption, but I have read that Dropbox either prohibit client-side encryption in their terms or drop customers that use it extensively, as it breaks their file de-duplicating model and they therefore have to provide many times more disk space and bandwidth for these customers.

      Nope, nothing in Dropboxes T&C's to limit you from using client-side encryption, and no instances reported of users being dropped from the service for anything other than blatant copyright infringement or illegal activities (virus or spam dissemination from the public folder for example).

      I use TrueCrypt extensively with my Dropbox, have done for several years now - its a 40GB container which gets regularly altered as I do a lot of stuff inside of it. It has never earned me any contact from the Dropbox team, and indeed the team do recommend using such tools on the forums from time to time.

      Your concerns with Dropbox are very wide of the mark, currently.

    13. Re:Yay! by dkf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...then giving away the directory structure and size of each updated file? You know, you can tell a lot from those.

      You have the power to customize the amount of information that you give out according to your paranoia level and the amount of convenience you desire. Bitching about something you have complete control over won't help.

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    14. Re:Yay! by hobarrera · · Score: 2

      Exactly, something like encfs works fine with these sort of services (since it's not a huge container that needs to be moved around)

    15. Re:Yay! by b0bby · · Score: 2

      You can do the same thing with rsync and ssh as you can do with DropBox.

      While I agree that you can do a lot with open protocols, Dropbox has its place. I mostly use it with Keepass; the Android version works well with dropbox, and I also use it for transferring epubs to Aldiko. Set it and forget it. If I had more complex needs it might be worth using a hosting service, but dropbox is pretty convenient for me.

    16. Re:Yay! by mlts · · Score: 2

      Both EncFS and PhonebookFS allow the use of chaff files. This way, an attacker would have no clue what is junk and what might be vital info.

      Another idea is to do what some people do is have a TrueCrypt volume on the cloud drive. Assuming the cloud software is smart enough to send only changes as opposed to completely sending the file, all they will see are encrypted deltas to offsets in the file. To help fool traffic analysis is easy -- do a bunch of random reads/writes, or just defragment the volume, and run a free space erase afterwards.

    17. Re:Yay! by mlts · · Score: 2

      Nothing in DB's EULA about encryption. They even have mention of using TC volumes and notes about sparse files not being supported.

      Its mind-blowingly obvious that I use TC containers (with the .tc extension), so if it were an issue, I'd well have been notified and/or kicked off DB ages ago.

      That doesn't mean that it may happen in the future, but as of today, nothing wrong with storing encrypted volumes, because one is paying for that.

    18. Re:Yay! by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Most of the pining for the Cloud appears to be from device vendors and fans of devices that refuse to build products with an adequate amount of local storage.

      People and companies are trying to make up for the lameness of devices by becoming dependent on a networks that are even more lame.

      A bird in the hand beats two in the Cloud.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    19. Re:Yay! by dave420 · · Score: 2

      It's theoretically more accessible, but unless you have an interface on every device you want to access the data with, then it's not accessible at all. I'm sure you're fine with WebDAV or SSH, but most people just want an experience like Dropbox, where they can have a client on every device they own (phones, computers of all sizes, etc.), and don't need to mess around with anything to get it working.

    20. Re:Yay! by ducman · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'd like a way to use these "cloud" storage services to make a really safe encrypted filesystem. Imagine that 95% of my data was on my own fileserver, but a critical 5% of the data was only stored on a "cloud" server (mirrored across several, for safety and performance). The FBI confiscates my server and a judge orders me to give them the passwords. "Fine," I say, "the password is 'pass1234,' good luck!"

      You could probably do something with RAID-5 over loop-mounted files to simulate this, but I'm not sure that would necessarily ensure that no files were recoverable without access the off-site part.

      --
      "We have nothing in common, your attitude annoys me, and your political views are appalling."
    21. Re:Yay! by Zebedeu · · Score: 2

      A private server + rsync may be a great setup, and one which I use myself, but it doesn't come even close to the functionality that Dropbox offers.

      With Dropbox you get two-way sync between all of your devices. They have clients for most platforms (including Linux) and the software quality is top notch (at least for the platforms I tried - Ubuntu, Android and Windows).
      Furthermore, you can easily share folders with other users and have everyone contribute to them. It's a great way to share vacation pictures, or documents with your family.

      The only issue I have with Dropbox is that I don't really want to trust all of my data to them, and even if I did, I find the prices a bit steep, especially considering that I already have a server running 24/7 with a high(-enough)-bandwidth internet connection.
      I'd love to be able to install a private Dropbox server and point my clients to it, but I understand that that would ruin their business model.

      Maybe someday SparkleShare will be an alternative: http://sparkleshare.org/

  2. encrypted files by SETY · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We need a "just works" encryption system for this, so google doesn't know what is stored.

    1. Re:encrypted files by masternerdguy · · Score: 2

      What exactly about existing encryption tools doesn't "just work"? Do you want a big encrypt button that magically does it all without any intervention?

      --
      To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
  3. Google Drive by nschubach · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought Google Drive would be reserved for the self driving cars! ;)

    --
    Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  4. Is it safe? Is it secret? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Can I get an account on an alternate TLD with a guaranty that my data won't be on an American server to protect it from American imperialism?

    Never mind then.

    1. Re:Is it safe? Is it secret? by Troed · · Score: 2

      You're looking for http://wuala.com/

      It's also a "cloud drive", but client-side encrypted (bye bye Dropbox) as well as hosted in Europe.

      --
      it's in my head
  5. New World Order will not include the USA by Tokolosh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who will trust their files to a .com located in the USA?

    --
    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
    1. Re:New World Order will not include the USA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Q:

      Who will trust their files to a .com located in the USA?

      A:
      Everyone.

      Unfortunately.

    2. Re:New World Order will not include the USA by SJHillman · · Score: 2

      Three of my websites are .com. I am located in the USA. Should I not trust my files to myself?

    3. Re:New World Order will not include the USA by 1s44c · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Three of my websites are .com. I am located in the USA. Should I not trust my files to myself?

      No. Not when your government can take your domain name at will, compel you to hand over all files, compel you to unencrypt everything that's encrypted even if you don't know the key, and place restrictions on where you can send your own data.

  6. Centrally managed for Google Apps users? by bluec · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder if this will also finally allow google apps for business domains to have centrally managed storage? Or will this still be tied to individual user accounts like the current storage facilities? The current scenario of tying storage to individual user accounts is a major oversight by google IMO.

  7. Wow,...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ooooh 5 Gigs!
    Microsoft for all of the bashing it takes gives 25 GB for free. It can be mounted like a network drive, etc.

    1. Re:Wow,...? by willaien · · Score: 4, Informative

      And has a 50MB limit for filesizes and requires third party services to do so.

  8. Cloud by l_bratch · · Score: 2

    But what if it rains?

    1. Re:Cloud by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Funny

      Free files for everyone!

  9. Let's just call it what it really is... by saltire+sable · · Score: 5, Funny

    If docs, pictures and music are covered, might as well call it Google Porn Drive.

  10. Only 5gb? by Inda · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They'd have to offer me more than 5gb for free if they want me to give up my Dropbox.

    What with the recent Dropbox mobile app give-away, linking my account to Twitter, posting a spam tweet, deleting spam tweet, completing their 'training', getting a couple of friends to join... I have 8gb for free.

    If Google could match that 8gb and provide typical Google upload and download speeds, I would swap. Dropbox is too slow at time.

    As for privacy: what the fucking hell are you lot storing of free sites like this? Just stick MP3s, AVIs, MKVs, and MP4s on there. If you must store documents, encrypt.

    And that almost sounds like preaching to the choir. Something no one on here should be doing.

    --
    This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
    1. Re:Only 5gb? by Colonel+Korn · · Score: 4, Interesting

      SkyDrive is 25 gigs without having to do any of the hoop-jumping you did to get extra Dropbox space. I still use Dropbox because, ironically, I think it hooks into the Windows UI much better than SkyDrive. Google likes to make a splash in this sort of thing, usually offering more space in order to tempt users of the existing services they're mimicking. My prediction is 50-100 gigs of space from Google.

      --
      "I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
  11. Redundant? by Grizzley9 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For pics and videos you have Google+/Picasa web albums and with G+ it's near unlimited space for normal size things. For documents there's Google Docs, as mentioned. What else do you need? Are they going to unify this into a single space or create a Carbonite type backup system? It seems like they already have a "Google Drive", it's just slightly broken up into separate services that enhance the features of the content.

    I welcome it, just wonder about usage. I have a SkyDrive acct with 25GB free that I hardly use. Perhaps this is more oriented towards their Google Apps business accounts.

    1. Re:Redundant? by fleeped · · Score: 2

      In the same way you have separate applications to access images, docs, etc, you could have another google service to access a filesystem.
      Now if Google Drive has extra access to your Picasa/Docs/Pages stuff and have them properly integrated, now that would be cool!
      Given the usual quality of new google services though, it will probably be messy.

  12. But I've been using GoogleFS for Three Years Now.. by eno2001 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    GoogleFS on top of FUSE in Linux has allowed mounting the space that you store Google docs in for quite some time. This whole time I kept wondering, "why isn't anyone writing a GUI for this for Windows and Mac users" so they're not left out in the cold. (Not entirely true with Mac users as FUSE works there too)

    --
    -"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
  13. Yes, but will it last? by dachshund · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google has a habit of killing services it doesn't believe in. That's (moderately) ok for a service like Wave, or even Google Health. It's not so good for a cloud storage service, where long-term availability is very much a requirement.

    1. Re:Yes, but will it last? by Skapare · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Less risk of Google killing it and more risk of the government closing it.

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    2. Re:Yes, but will it last? by Col.+Klink+(retired) · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but google doesn't just shut things down overnight. They usually announce a date where it will be read-only, and then keep it up for much longer. Wave, for example, is RO now and won't be shut down until April 30.

      --

      -- Don't Tase me, bro!

  14. Mozilla weave by sakdoctor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Mozilla weave (sync) is the only example I can think of, of this "cloud shit" done right.
    https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Weave/Developer/Crypto ... crypto done right, and yet "it just works".

    1. Re:Mozilla weave by ediron2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Mozilla weave (sync) is the only example I can think of, of this "cloud shit" done right.
      https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Weave/Developer/Crypto ... crypto done right, and yet "it just works".

      Thanks for mentioning Weave -- it had slipped under my radar.

      Other cloud app's that show they're making trustable / secure cloud storage effort:

      PassPack (password mgmt, with fields encrypted locally by a key they never know. They also offer the underlying library for this as FOSS source code for anyone interested in working in a similar framework)

      LastPass (similar, doesn't isolate account info from data like PassPack)

      Hushmail used to have something similar.

      Several secure-storage tools will encrypt then push the encrypted content to either DropBox or some other storage point.

  15. April 1st by slasho81 · · Score: 2

    Wouldn't it be cool if Google Drive launched on April 1st with an announcement of 1000GB of free online storage? Google can pull this off.
    Google got so much respect (and many users) for taking it to the next level with GMail and not just doing another me-too with its email service.

  16. Re:But I've been using GoogleFS for Three Years No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Try Ext2Fsd - http://www.ext2fsd.com/ - I've been using it to read/write my ext3 volumes in Windows for years. It works just fine in 64-bit Windows 7, too. (Though it doesn't have journaling support, so it effectively writes both ext2 and ext3 volumes as ext2. But this doesn't corrupt the drive.) Since I dual-boot to Linux most of the time, the FS gets checked every couple of weeks just in case. I've never had a problem with it.

  17. Business flees from the US by Walt+Sellers · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Didn't Slashdot recently run a story on this very offering by European companies?

    Such a reaction was predictable and understandable. Now we all get to wait and see how the loss of hosting profits for US companies compares to the gains for media companies. (And by profits, I mean lost business revenue along with increased costs.)

    Remember too, that customers of outsourcing services may now have more reason to select specifically non-US businesses.

  18. How isn't this Google Docs? by DdJ · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm confused ... isn't Google Docs already this?

    I'm already using it this way, using it as an arbitrary file store, from my desktop via the browser and on my iOS devices via multiple applications like "GoodReader".

    The article didn't give me an idea of what they're adding. Transparent background sync with local filesystem? Standards-compliant WebDAV access?