Google's much-awaited answer to Dropbox, Google Drive, will reportedly become available to users as early as next week.
The Verge said on Monday it was in possession of a draft press release from one of the Google Drive launch partners, which provided some insight into the new service.
Expected to launch with 5GB storage for each user, Google Drive could dwarf offerings from other services such as Dropbox, which starts users off with 2GB free storage.
Cloud storage is becoming an increasingly contested space with the likes of Apple, Amazon and Microsoft all offering their own services. In the mobile space, HTC and Samsung have also partnered with Dropbox to give One series and Galaxy Tab 2 customers 25GB extra storage.
According to The Verge, Google Drive will be compatible with both Windows and Mac, and will work “in desktop folders”.
A supposedly leaked screenshot of the new services states: “All your files, everywhere. Put files in Google Drive and you can access them on your desktop, mobile phone or tablet. Make changes to a file in one place and it automatically updates everywhere.”
TechCrunch also received a tip-off as to the existence of a Google Drive app for OS X. While the app can be installed, it is not yet functional and returns an error message stating: “Google Drive is not yet enabled for your account.” The app does, however, show native support for Google file types such as Google Docs and images from GDraw.
Commentators say a welcome feature would be the direct saving of Gmail attachments to Google Drive, to allow for offline access. The easy integration of existing services could be the factor that gives Google the competitive edge in the cloud storage space.
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