Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Google's Schmidt Said To Leak Online Storage Details

GDrive - A Google online storage mechanism that is indexed and available remotely over the web. (Sort of a Google version of .mac.) The service likely will be free - maybe an ad supported interface - and allow a gigantic/unlimited storage amount (sure they will throttle it somehow such that companies cannot start using Google Base and GDrive rather than a database but it will still likely have very high very useful capacities).

Wait isnt that what GMail FileSystem and a few dozen GMail accounts are already for? I presume this will be a bit slicker and more legitimate ;).

[Sidenote. We were joking at work the other day about a new storage requirement we have and just signing up for 25 "Pro" flickr accounts and making an interface that could store what we needed, balanced, across those accounts. Maybe even - since we are making it up as we go along here anyway - a new encoding/decoding API which we invent that will allow us to store other types of data, apart from images, at flickr. We all got a laugh but the reality is that technology is approaching that point. The point where conditions relating to bandwidth/network stability/provider trust are so favorable that "save everything at google" or "store it all at flickr" will be feasible and even potentially wise for businesses as well as home users. Yes there are risks with this approach, but the point of this tangent is that the day will come when it makes sense to do this over buying another few servers and some Oracle licenses, etc.]