|
Long months of speculation about Google launching a revolutionary "GDrive" online storage service were brought to an end, in somewhat of a dampner, when Google announced that it was adding storage capabilities to its Google Docs service. This new service, the basic version of which is free, allows users to store "an file type" to their Google Docs account. The basic service is free, and storage can be extended for a price. Rather than being a disruptive offering in the online storage market, this new development seems to be more targeted towards business users of Google Apps, or the business collaboration software market in general, who want to store and collaborate on common file types, and not just the online Google formats that Google Docs supports. In recent times, as a recent HyperOffice blog entry on Google Apps revealed, Google has been making concessions on its "purely online" approach and offering support for popular traditional software - MS Office, MS Outlook etc. However, although Google has touted the word "collaboration" in its announcements, the new feature just allows users to store and access files from their Google Docs account but not collaborate on them. Features like versioning, notifications, audit trails etc are missing, which exist in existing online document management offerings.
|
