Google Copies Microsoft, Lets Users Share 15GB of Free Storage Shared Between Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos
Google’s various free cloud services are tremendous in terms of what you get for what you pay, but now the deal is getting even better. The company announced today that it will unify storage between Drive, Gmail, and Google+, which both gives users a shared pool of storage that they can distribute among those services as they fit and also integrates those services even deeper with each other than they were before.
Now, it doesn’t matter if your Gmail account is sparse and your Google+ page is loaded with photos--your 15GB of storage is your 15GB, no matter where you’re using it.
It’s a simple yet brilliant tweak--and it’s one that Google (smartly) swiped from Microsoft. Say what you will about Microsoft’s free online services--Office online, the new Outlook.com email, SkyDrive, and so on--but the company built its offerings in such a way that SkyDrive storage was deeply integrated of all of it. For example, in your Outlook.com email uses SkyDrive to “send attachments” in such a way as to avoid clogging up recipients’ email storage, and the storage service also makes it easy for users to collaborate on documents with Office.
The new storage setup has also affected how you can upgrade for more capacity; if you need more room, you can opt for 100GB for $4.99 per month or 200GB for $9.99 per month. The updates will start rolling out over the next couple of weeks.
Now, it doesn’t matter if your Gmail account is sparse and your Google+ page is loaded with photos--your 15GB of storage is your 15GB, no matter where you’re using it.
It’s a simple yet brilliant tweak--and it’s one that Google (smartly) swiped from Microsoft. Say what you will about Microsoft’s free online services--Office online, the new Outlook.com email, SkyDrive, and so on--but the company built its offerings in such a way that SkyDrive storage was deeply integrated of all of it. For example, in your Outlook.com email uses SkyDrive to “send attachments” in such a way as to avoid clogging up recipients’ email storage, and the storage service also makes it easy for users to collaborate on documents with Office.
The new storage setup has also affected how you can upgrade for more capacity; if you need more room, you can opt for 100GB for $4.99 per month or 200GB for $9.99 per month. The updates will start rolling out over the next couple of weeks.
