Google’s latest innovation has users’ heads in the cloud
Google Drive was unveiled yesterday. Talks of Google offering a cloud storage system have been floating on the internet for years with little conformation from the company.
The new system offers 5GB of free storage, but users can upgrade to different monthly storage plans ranging from 25GB for $2.49 to 1TB for $49.99. If you do choose to upgrade, your Gmail account will also be expanded to 25GB.
The new feature will integrate Google Docs, allowing you to work on projects with others anywhere in the world in real time. Google also offers a downloadable Drive program, which can be installed on both Mac and PC. There is also an app for Android devices, and an app for mobile IOS systems is also in the works.
The new Google Drive also pushes the limits by utilizing Optical Character Recognition, which allows you to scan and upload a magazine clipping and search for a specific word within the article by just typing in a keyword. Photo recognition has also been integrated, so the system will automatically pull up your photos from your thrilling trip to Dino World when you type the name in. This makes it unnecessary to tag and label photos.
The ability to send faxes, edit videos and create website layouts is also in the works through third-party developers.
Google hyped their new feature on their blog writing:
“Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.”
However, social media sites have been on fire over who owns the information. Technically, the user retains the ownership, but Google’s disclaimer states they have :
“A worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. “
Their disclaimer also gives them the right to continue using any documents, photos or videos that you may have had in their cloud even after you have removed them or stopped using the service. This may steer some users away from using Google Drive, especially those in creative field given that ownership over their work is a large issue.
While Google + never took off as the company expected it to, time will only tell if users will migrate away from other cloud programs like Dropbox to Google Drive.
