Google is preparing a service that would let users store on its computers essentially all of the files they might keep on their personal-computer hard drives – such as word-processing documents, digital music, video clips and images, say people familiar with the matter. The service could let users access their files via the Internet from different computers and mobile devices when they sign on with a password, and share them online with friends. It could be released as early as a few months from now, one of the people said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119612660573504716.html

That is .. GDrive! That isn't new at all though ...

What's new is that they now have a timeframe for when it could be released (as early as a few months from now to as late as never)

>> (as early as a few months from now to as late as never)

Yeah, let's not forget early situations Google didn't make it on time... like Presentations for example, when they say it'll launch during summer.

We even searched for the exact definition of the word Summer, if anyone here remembers..
You think there's an exact definition to " A few month " ? :P

I seriously doubt there's anything new here.

<< Google is preparing a service that would let users store on its computers essentially all of the files they might keep on their personal-computer hard drives ... say people familiar with the matter. >>

For all we know, those "people" could include bloggers like myself, Philipp, Ionut, Garett, Haochi, TOMHTML, etc.

<< It could be released as early as a few months from now, one of the people said. >>

With a time-frame as vague as that, they could have just made assumptions based on any number of recent posts, like this one:

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-09-04-n51.html

Of course, it could be released as early as a few months from now. So could JotSpot. So could a lot of new Google services that we don't even know about.

<< A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on any specific online storage plans ... >>

Erm, so they've got nothing official then.

<< A document Google inadvertently released on the Web in March 2006 ... >>

i.e. the same document as this one:

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-03-06-n30.html

I'd like to know who their "people familiar with the matter" actually are.

So basically they've just resurrected the Google Drive story eh? :/

Maybe they read my article:

http://blog.radioactiveyak.com/2007/09/easy-come-easy-google.html

and realised that with Android, OpenSocial, Presently released only GoogleTV and GDrive were left to fuel rampant speculation. Techcrunch scooped them on purely speculative GoogleTV story:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/20/the-google-set-top-box-think-android-for-tv/

   so that left them with GDrive to generate pageviews...

By the way, Kevin J. Delaney who's co-authoring that WSJ article did email & call me on the subject of Google in September.

As for the article, isn't the name "Google – My Stuff" new info, meaning he probably talked to a Google employee on that one?

Maybe, it's internally consistent – 'Shared Stuff' :: 'My Stuff' so there's that.

And 'Shared Stuff' still hasn't been officially launched...

Philipp, can you ask him if he has new elements ?

Maybe they're waiting to launch My Stuff before they release the rest of Shared Stuff because sharing your stuff will be a main feature :)

On a kinda related note, SearchEngineLand has what seems to be a screenshot of the Platypus icon on a Googler's desktop:

http://searchengineland.com/071127-083832.php

We already knew that Googlers use Platypus internally though...

Interestingly enough, Google's reply to my inquiry is a bit longer than the usual "we don't comment on rumor and speculation":

<<Cloud computing is going mainstream. The apps people use every day, such as email, photo sharing, and word processing, are moving to the web because it's easier to share and access your data from anywhere when it's online, in one place.

Storage is an important component of making web apps fit easily into consumers' and business users' lives. That's why we've always offered a lot of free storage, and it's why we offer paid options for buckets of "overflow" storage spanning across apps, including Picasa Web Albums and Gmail for now, with more services like Google Docs to come.

We're always listening to our users and looking for ways to update and improve our web applications, including storage options, but we don't have anything new to announce right now.>>

> Philipp, can you ask him if he has new elements ?

Kevin can't share the type of his sources, he says. That's understandable, he wants to protect his sources as journalist.

David http://blogoscoped.com/forum/116391.html#id116407
Google doesn't even know what "A few months means", how will we ever know?

http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+a+few+months&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3DVFC_enIE240IE240

lolll...

[moved from "Now THIS could be GDrive- no kidding." -Philipp]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119612660573504716.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news

>>Kevin can't share the type of his sources, he says. That's understandable, he wants to protect his sources as journalist.

I kind of expected this, but this is merely a yes or a no. Not a name or anything. Just to say if he has just made a medley of what's already available and speculated , or not.

<<Interestingly enough, Google's reply to my inquiry is a bit longer than the usual "we don't comment on rumor and speculation":>>

Phillip – were do you ask them?

pressgoogle.com ... it's their public press support, everybody can email there... they ignore some of my emails, others get an answer...

thanks – how often do you get answers? are they personal or just generic?

BTW, I've just noticed that the table WSJ published says:

http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-AM983_GDRIVE_20071126202132.gif

"The service is expected to launch next year" which, if someone told him it was likely to be released next year, that's probably where he got "a few months from now" from since next year is in a few months...

..."accessible directly from Windows". Hmm...

Next year, next month, in a few months, in a few weeks. I don't think it's very important. Hopefully they will launch the service at some point.

> how often do you get answers? are
> they personal or just generic?

It depends. Often you will get no answer, e.g. when asking about censorship, or just form answers which don't actually answer the specific quesion. At other times, they reply with useful and interesting information. In comparison with other press support emails I've tried, Google is often replying very fast and friendly. I still remember Yahoo, who asked me if I was a journalist, to then completely ignore me when I got back to them.

As for how personal they are, well they are working for Google to answer questions of the press or send out material. So it's a job, but it's not like they would be acting like robots or anything. They understand it's my job to ask and I understand it's their job to not always tell, it's not a personal relationship. If they do not tell, I do not think that Jane or John or whoever replied doesn't want to offer the information, but instead I hold "Google the company" accountable, as it's a strategic/ political decision, not the personal decision of John or Jane. Accordingly, they also ask the press to credit quotes to "a Google spokesperson" and not e.g. "Jane" or someting. I usually cut out the "spokesperson" part when I name the source, though, I think that best reflects the truth (a spokesperson after all gets their texts from a team behind her or him who discussed these issues with Google management, so it's definitely a "group quote").