Google launches its cloud service

Since this morning, the internet has been buzzing about Google's new online storage service (and maybe a little bit about the Champions League semi-final ^^), namely Google Drive.

The news wasn't really official at first, but it wasn't long in coming. Google made it official midway through the day, and is now rolling out its brand new service.

But what is Google Drive really?

As mentioned above, Google Drive is an online storage service that lets you back up your files on Google (basically, you can now easily do without an external hard drive, for example).

If you take a look at the service, you'll see that you're entitled to 5 GB of storage free of charge. That's good, but it's still not enough. For example, SkyDrive (Microsoft's service) recently started offering 7 GB free, and your DropBox space can easily be increased to 10 GB (or even more) through referrals.

Of course, Google Drive doesn't stop there - it wouldn't be profitable for the American giant. In addition to the free space, you can buy a few extra GB. To get an extra 20GB (25 in all), you'll have to pay $2.49 a month. You can then opt for a maximum of 16TB at a lower price (16TB is $799.99 per month).

It's hard to say whether Google Drive will be a hit with Internet users. After all, there are dozens of storage methods, and the competition can be fierce. SkyDrive, for example, will be integrated into Windows 8, making it almost indispensable for OS users to use the service. On the other hand, it's true that all Google's services are fairly closely linked, and it may be very easy to use Google Drive. Perhaps even without your knowledge (perhaps Picasa or one or other of these services).

Personally, I'm going to test this storage method and compare it with DropBox, for example, which I already use regularly. What I'm really excited about is what was said above: the near-perfect integration of Google services into Google Drive (I don't have a smartphone, so I don't see any advantage in that respect).

And to try out Google Drive, go to This way.