Google Announces Google Drive : Pass Or Fail?

Google Drive, the most talked tech rumor since 2006 has been finally revealed today. It's a new cloud-based online storage application by Google which aims at simplicity to share and allow users to store their content freely. A place where you can create, share, collaborate and keep all your stuff. Whether you're working with a friend, or on a research project or anything else, you can do it on Drive. You can upload all of your files including photos, videos, Google Docs, PDF's and much more. It's actually a new home for all your files and folders. You can access your data from anywhere whether it's Windows, Android on Google Play or even Mac OS.

Well, setting up Google Drive is a "make a new folder" job, you just need to godrive.google.com/start and sign in with your preferred Google account. Then you need to Download Google Drive For PC and as soon as it's installed a new folder "Google Drive" will be created where you can start storing your files and folders. Drive will sync your files when you add to the folder, it takes about 2-3min to upload 35MB of data which is quick enough. You can have feedback on your files via comments and can even reply them. You can share your files and folders with your friends just by providing them the link or changing the sharing settings to "Public".

Things about Google Drive which could Challenge other Cloud Services :

1. Google Drive Offers 5GB of free storage to all the users at start which is twice more than Dropbox's 2GB storage.
2. The memory of the files saved as Google Docs will not be counted in the free 5GB storage provided.
3. You can directly share your files with anyone on the web by changing the 'Sharing Settings' to Public, Anyone with the link or only to specific persons unlike creating a Shared Folder in Dropbox.
4. Google Drive has the best pricing schemes for extra storage, it charges only $2.5/month for 25GB extra and $4.99 for 100GB extra storage and even for 1TB it charges just $49.99/month.
5. Since Drive is an open platform, they are also working on third-party apps like Pixlr will offer an online image editor, WeVideo offers online video editing, Docusign let's users sign documents and Hellofax allows to send and receive Google Drive files as faxes.

Google Drive isn't yet available for Linux as far as we know. But it's certainly available for Windows, Mac and Android. You can download the official Google Drive app for Android devices and tablets from HERE.

UPDATE : Soon after Google Drive's launch yesterday, the Chinese government has blocked access to Google's new cloud storage service. So the Chinese people can neither use Dropbox nor Google Drive. This will obviously allow the local services like Baidu's Wangpan cloud storage service to dominate. It also provides 25GB of free storage to all the users which is much more than the combined figure of Dropbox and Google Drive and can be even increased further for free through some initiatives.