Unlimited Storage

[geekerati]

It hasn't been that long ago when we all were freaking out over the prospect of this for Gmail storage.

According to a Google presentation, the company is optimistic about unlimited storage capacities

Ever since Google released its highly acclaimed GMail service, many users have found interesting ways to make the most of the available space provided by Google. While other free email services battle over megabytes of free space, Google currently leads all other services by the gigabytes. Using 3rd party utilities, it is possible to map your GMail account as a psuedo-drive in Windows and use the account as a drag-and-drop file system. With these tools, some users have even sent themselves invites to chain together accounts for an effectively unlimited amount of network storage space.

According to reports however, sometime in the near future this activity may no longer be limited to 3rd party utilities. On Google's anlaysis day, a document presented contained information about a possible service called GDrive. The details in the presentation indicate that Google's long term goal is to provide a service to users that give unlimited amounts of storage space so that any type of file can be uploaded and stored. The presentation even indicates the service may be built to allow users access to their files from any device, and any location. The Google presentation, before it was editted and removed by Google, read (emphasis ours):

Theme 2: Store 100% of User Data
With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including: emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc). We already have efforts in this direction in terms of GDrive, GDS, Lighthouse, but all of them face bandwidth and storage constraints today.

Naturally, privacy concerns are rising with regards to Google's goals of collecting information. In the presentation, Google even indicates that it plans to collect "all" of the world's information, not just some of it. In this regard, it could be possible for Google to provide high-level services for government bodies that wish to collect information in a manner that would otherwise be too difficult without Google's search spiders.

No information on whether or not Google also plans to offer these types of storage services for fee-based subscriptions, though Garett Rogers from ZDNet hypothesizes:

In some screenshots of Gmail for domains, it appears there are different "account plans" that I assume provide additional email addresses. Could a similar system work for online storage? For example, 1GB free and pay $5 for each additional.

Source

[Albatross]

I like it. People need to stop worrying about Google collecting information. A lot of people wouldn't find Google as useful as it is today with having the information to give back to the end user. Also, I don't think that they will do anything with, "Don't be evil". Finally, why are you doing anything that you wouldn't want people to find out? Are you doing something wrong?

People in REAL LIFE find ways to cover their tracks by using fake Social Security Numbers, false address, I don't think hiding your identity on the web is that hard to do. Thanks for listening to my rant.

[myotismon]

thats interesting, we probably wont hear anything about it for awhile though, april 1st at the latest would be my guess.brAs for privacy, everyone needs to give a little about that. If you are so concerned about your privacy, why are you using the internet to begin with, you should be living in the middle of the montana, in a one room shack you built with your own hands, have no friends, and live off the land. Because, quite frankly, that is the only way no one will find out about you.brAs for charing a fee, i think thats not true. Google already promised its beta users that no matter what happens in the future, we will get to keep our gmail accounts, and all the storage and features it has for free forever. But i still hold true that google will give it away for free, they beleive that everything in the world should be avaliable to everyone in the world, at any time, and at the price of free, so i think thats how it will stay.brjust my thoughts on it.br

[Anonymous]

Regarding privacy, I think taht it is a bug issue, especially with Gmail:

According to the privacy policy, Google can pass on your emails to governments. Now, with up to 2.7gb of messages, that is a bit worrying.

And, the deleted emails are kept on Google's servers for a few days.

I still use Gmail, but I don't blame people for finding the privacy problems a big issue.

[jeremywc]

It's a trade off. You can't take advantage of some of their features without sacrificing some of your privacy, unless you've got the knowledge and resources to setup something out of your house. People want someone else to give them 2 gigs of online e-mail storage, for free, without somehow keeping mail on the host's servers indefinitely? I'm not exactly sure how this would be accomplished. :P

[andrew247]

If you're a legitamate trader and have no illegal connections online then there really shouldn't be a problem about Google displaying a few relevant adverts and scanning the content of emails.

[tokkolo]

Originally Posted by andrew247

If you're a legitamate trader and have no illegal connections online then there really shouldn't be a problem about Google displaying a few relevant adverts and scanning the content of emails.

Oh so true. If they would be interestered in your messages they sure are not interested in private emails and stuff. Theyhave better things to do with their time. So why worry that they scan the content of it?

[Albatross]

Apparently Google had accidentally leaked the GDrive info to the public via the web...

[zima]

Originally Posted by Albatross

I like it. People need to stop worrying about Google collecting information. A lot of people wouldn't find Google as useful as it is today with having the information to give back to the end user. Also, I don't think that they will do anything with, "Don't be evil". Finally, why are you doing anything that you wouldn't want people to find out? Are you doing something wrong?

People in REAL LIFE find ways to cover their tracks by using fake Social Security Numbers, false address, I don't think hiding your identity on the web is that hard to do. Thanks for listening to my rant.

You were doing good...until the part I put in bold (and of course after it I agree too). Sorry, but I have right to privacy, and there's also that thing "innocent until proven guilty". That said, when somebody starts using Google servies they agree with terms, and Google is very upfront in that matter.

Originally Posted by tokkolo

<> <
><>Oh so true. If they would be interestered in your messages they sure are not interested in private emails and stuff. They have better things to do with their time. So why worry that they scan the content of it?<
><><
>

Well...let us not jump to quick conclusions. Where there's power it is likelly it will be abused from time to time... (ever heard about the case when reconnasaince army chopper equipped with IR cameras spied on some couple "for fun"?) Anyway, we shouldn't assume "they have better things to do", the systems/procedures should be designed in a way that excludes fraud, and that is extremelly hard to do. At least Google is doing their part good in that regard (employees don't have acces to credit card numbers for example), but I somehow doubt if any gov administration can remain "clean"...

[stuck_fugu]

Well as for unlimited storage, I could definately use that.

As for privacy, it's not like they are required to provide the service, and if you don't like their policies then don't use it, right?

As for me, I guess I would perfer them not to collect info from me. But with Canadian laws allowing sharing of files, I'm technically not doing anything wrong so I wouldn't have anything to worry about.