Going for a GDrive with Google

The Web world was abuzz this week over rumors that Google is preparing a service that will let people store every bit of their data online.

Details about the GDrive product leaked onto the Web after Google accidentally posted notes online from a slide presentation given by executives during the company's analyst presentation day.

Bloggers quickly picked up on the notes, which stated that "with infinite storage, we can house all user files, including e-mails, Web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc., and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc.)." Google subsequently took the original presentation, and the notes, offline.

While bloggers were excited about the possible new product, the prospect of people trusting 100 percent of their data with Google raised recurring privacy concerns.

Blog community response:

"Information was clearly purged from analyst materials (unless this is an elaborate hoax by Greg and his readers), meaning we have selective disclosure of this information. Some people received it but it is not generally available to the public. I don't like this. In fact, I think it's Gevil. Now that some people know about it, Google should put it (back) up on the Web. "
--TechCrunch

"The more I think about this, the more I'm not comfortable with the idea of having all my data in one place. Any place. Google or otherwise. It simply makes abuse too easy."
--John Battelle's Searchblog

"Any timeline is unclear. The internal notes say Google's 'store 100 percent' scenario would be made possible if Google had 'infinite storage'...Left out, I assume, is the revelation: 'Google's live-forever scenario would be made possible if not for the problem of death.'"
--ValleyWag