Google Drive Launches With 5 Gigabytes Of Free Storage

Google's file hosting and synchronization service Google Drive is here, at least for some users as the service seems to be rolling out gradually right now. The Google Drive homepage is live, and provides interested users with information what Drive is offering.

A short video highlights the features of Google Drive, without revealing to much about the inner workings of the service. The homepage thankfully is more revealing than that. Google Drive users get 5 Gigabyte of free storage, which falls in line with other file hosting services. The service itself is available on Windows PCs and Apple Macintosh computer systems, as well as Android phones. The page mentions that Drive will also be available for iPhone and iPad in the feature. For now, it is Windows, Mac and Android only.

Here is the Google Drive introductory video:

When you look at the features of Google Drive, you will notice that the following are mentioned on the page:

• Work better with the products you use everyday. Gmail
  Say goodbye to bulky email attachments. Send a link from Google Drive in Gmail and everyone has the same file, same version—automatically.
• Google+ Your videos and pictures in Google Drive are instantly available in Google+, so you’re never more than one click away from sharing with your circles.
• Powerful search. Google Drive helps you get to your files faster. Search for content by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Google Drive can even recognize objects in your images and text in scanned documents.
• View anything. Open over 30 file types right in your browser—including HD video, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop—even if you don’t have the program installed on your computer.
• Google Drive with your favorite apps. Create, open and share files from a variety of apps directly in Google Drive.
• Share the way you want. You can share files or folders with anyone, and choose whether they can view, edit or comment on your stuff.
• Start a discussion. Create and reply to comments to get feedback and make files more collaborative.
• Go back in time. Google Drive tracks every change you make—so when you hit the save button, a new revision is saved. You can look back as far as 30 days automatically, or choose a revision to save forever.

Google Drive from the looks of it will resemble Microsoft's SkyDrive closer than it resembles Dropbox or other pure file synchronization features. Google users benefit from Drive integration into some of Google's core services, the ability to view file types right in the browser, file and folder sharing options, as well as a file revision history.

Additional storage pricing has not been revealed yet, but unofficial sources claim that users have to pay $4 per month for 20 Gigabyte of additional storage, up to a maximum of 16 Terabytes of storage, and with Google Docs files not counting against that limit.

Update: Pricing information have changed. Users can get 25 Gigabyte of extra space for $2.49 per month, 100 Gigabytes for $4.99 per month, and 1 Terabyte of storage for $49.99 per month. Users who upgrade space benefit from increased storage in Google Mail as well, where the storage is increased to 25 Gigabytes.

Several of the features have already been offered as part of other Google products, like the ability to open a range of file types in Google Docs, or sharing of documents.

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