Google Drive Launches Officially with 5GB Free Storage

Google has finally launched their much-anticipated cloud storage service “Google Drive”.

As it was revealed earlier, the new cloud storage service will offer 5GB of free storage space to store all your documents, videos, photos, PDFs and other files. Google Docs is already integrated with the service.

With the launch, Google now offers 5 GB space in Google Drive, 1 GB in Picasa for storing pictures, and 10 GB in Gmail for free. If any user needs more storage space they can pay for extra storage space. Prices are very flexible and competitive, starting from 25GB of space for $2.49 a month, 100GB for $4.99 a month, or 1TB for $49.99 a month, up to 16TB for $799.99 a month. Yearly plans aren’t available yet. Whenever any user opts for upgrading to a paid account, their Gmail account will automatically expand to 25GB.

google-drive

With the integration of Google Docs functionality, Google Drive allows everyone to collaborate in real-time. The service will also let users search by keyword. Further users can filter by file type, owner, and other criteria.

Google while officially announcing the service said, “Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience.” Users can attach photos from Drive to posts it in Google+, and soon will be able to attach from Drive directly to emails in Gmail.

Google has made Drive an open platform. They are working with many third-party developers which will allow users to “send faxes, edit videos, and create website mockups directly from Drive.”

Initially, it feels like they have just enhanced and re-branding Google Docs with features that are now common to many cloud storage services like Dropbox and SugarSync. After all it was expected since, Google was already offering collaboration feature with Google Docs. It was just a matter of time they include the rest of the features with the service and enhance it.

When you visit https://drive.google.com/start and sign in today, you may see a message that says “We’ll email you at [email protected] when your Google Drive is ready.” But don’t worry, just open Google Docs website and check your storage space, it should show 5GB.

google docs showing 5gb space

Google Drive is available for Windows, Mac, and Android. Support for iPhone and iPad will come soon.

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