Friday, August 10, 2007

Google Shared Storage Program Released

To wrap up the mystery of the increased Gmail storage many of you saw today: Google just released a shared storage program. This new offer merges the storage of different Google products into a single storage back-end. At this time, the Picasa Web Albums photo application as well as Gmail are part of the mix. But we can expect more services to be added to this program in the future. Google Documents (containing word processing documents, spreadsheets, and likely presentations soon, too) is a likely contender. Separate premium accounts, like the one Picasa offered before, are being removed in the meantime.

Now, if you need more storage for any particular application which is part of the shared storage program, you can buy some. “With a Google shared storage plan, you won’t have to worry about deleting files, pictures, or emails. After purchasing a storage plan, some of your individual Google services (e.g. email and photos) will share a single new storage space,” Google’s page reads.

The offers range from 6 gigabyte for $1 $20/ year up to 250 gigabyte for $500/ year, as the table below shows (your payment will be processed with Google Checkout; note you will not receive the upgrade instantly, and Google says it may take “up to 24 hours" for your new storage amount “to appear in all services”). This storage will be extra to the free storage you already got through different Google services. Especially for those of you for whom Gmail’s “you’ll never need to delete another message” claim was false as the inbox was overflowing, the additional 6 or 25 gigabytes may be worth it.

Google Shared Storage Pricing

6 GB	$1/ year $20/ year [Update: Google this second updated their pricing for this. I still have the screenshot and order receipt for the $1 pricing.]
25 GB	$75.00/ year
100 GB	$250/ year
250 GB	$500/ year

Digg this?

[Thanks everyone! Image by Haochi.]

Update: Google just released a blog post on this. They say the purchasing feature will be rolled out “in a few hours” and that they will update their post as soon as they’re “ready to take your order.”

Update 2: The help pages on this program are up now and clarify “There’s currently no way to use your free storage space from one product to house content from another.” So you will only be able to share the storage you paid for, not the one you got for free on sign-up of a service. Also, Google in their blog post now added, “we’re live”.

Google Shared Storage Pro ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (72)

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