Thursday, April 16, 2009

The GDrive - What it Should Be

The rumors are coming out again.  Goolge is hinting, or playing us, with its new GDrive, or Google Web Drive.  You can find a lot of other resources telling you what it is, but a short recap may be in order.  The GDrive is Google's rumored drive that would allow you to store information "in the cloud."  In short, an online Hard Drive.  There are many other services that allow you to store information on the internet, such as Adrive.  However, the GDrive could be so much more.  While the rumors are still flying about, I might as well toss in my own 2 cents.

  • The GDrive should hold everything.  There are already some sources which say that the GDrive would hold music files, something that Google has stayed away from before.  GDrive should hold everything, that way there is no excuse to have your own Hard Drive.  Everything could be in the cloud.
  • Fast transfer rate.  Of course, this is obvious, but Google should never limit people in their download speed or upload speed.
  • Infinite Space.  Of course, infinite space would require some money, but Adrive offers 50 GB free, so Google should start out with at least that.
  • No file size limit.  Users are uploading and moving huge files.  Saving ISO's and movies that are 4 GB in size, or even as big as 10 GB.  There should be absolutely no limit on how big a file can be to be uploaded.
  • Remote booting.  This could be interesting.  Even if everything is "in the cloud," your computer still needs and Operating System.  Imagine a Google built OS that would be small, and would boot from a remote Hard Drive off in Google Land.  It would automatically connect to your own GDrive, and so you could save and work with programs.  You could install programs to your GDrive.  The GDrive would act as a "Network Drive" and the OS itself would never change.  This means your computer, hopefully, would remain virus free.
  • Access Everywhere.  Yes, everywhere.  On your cell phone, on your iPhone, on your computer, on your friend's computer, on that sketchy Hotel Computer that has 13 different viruses.  Everywhere.
  • File Sharing.  In one form or another, it will happen.  The GDrive should take this into account and allow files to be shared.  Perhaps this will make the MPAA and the FIAA really angry, but I think that Google could fight them off.
  • Music Streaming.  Why not?
These are just some ideas that Google should incoporate into their GDrive.  In general, it should be Free (up to a level) and really, really big.  

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