Google is arming itself for cloud storage battle against Amazon and Apple iCloud with the upcoming of Google Drive, or GDrive, reports indicate.
Google is on the verge of launching Google Drive, according to an image posted by social media consultant Johannes Wigand taken at an "event powered by Google" and a report from TechCrunch. Google Drive has been rumored to be in the works for years and the images show a Google Docs-style interface with the word "Drive" in the upper left corner, indicating that it's a cloud-based storage offering.
Google would not comment on Google Drive or its possible release. "We don't comment on speculated reports or pre-announce in any way," a Google spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to CRN Monday.
While Google already offers a certain amount of cloud storage with Google Docs, providing cloud storage capacity for Google documents, images, videos and other files, but Google does not have a true cloud storage play like Amazon Cloud Drive or the upcoming Apple iCloud service, which will be released this fall. The launch of Google Drive would spark an all-out war over who controls the cloud data and the cloud storage market, with the major players duking it out to host user data and content.
Google Drive will also give Google an alternative to the myriad other cloud storage offerings from the likes of Dropbox and others.
According to reports, Google Drive will offer syncing software that users can install on each device for synced storage. It is also expected to feature a "My Google Drive" area for various folders. The Tech Crunch report indicates that other Google Drive-specific tools will be available as well.
So far, there isn't a set release date for Google Drive. One theory is Google may release Google Drive to coincide with the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of the Google Android operating system, which is expected in October. From the images of Google Drive, it also appears that it will be part of Google Chrome, or the Google Chrome OS which is on Google's Chromebook cloud notebooks.
