Upload and store your files in the cloud with Google Docs | Hacker News Reader

Upload and store your files in the cloud with Google Docs

googledocs.blogspot.com

75 pointsjohns34 comments

$0.02 per GB-month is a lot better than S3 or Cloud Storage, which is $0.15. It looks like you can only purchase 14TB per account[1], but the cost savings are such that I wonder if we'll see people switching.

[1]: https://www.google.com/accounts/purchasestorage

But, interestingly, for business customers it's $0.20:

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/01/store-and-share...

Where did you see $0.02/GB/month? The post says $0.25/GB/month.

That's per year

That storage space purchase page you linked is for Gmail and Picasa only, not GDocs as far as I can tell.

The blog post states that if you need more space, you can buy additional storage [<- link to page Aaron linked to] for $0.25 per GB per year.

I'm guessing they simply haven't updated the page to reflect that the storage is shared across Docs as well.

Edit- confirmed in the comments:

The storage page will be updated later today to reflect the addition of Google Docs.

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/01/upload-and-store-your...

"For standard Google Docs users this will be 25 cents per gigabyte, per year, while Google Apps enterprise users have to pay $3.50 per gigabyte, per year"

Looks more like $3.50/gigabyte for business users. That's a pretty massive difference between consumer/business pricing.

I don't think 14 times difference make sense. Could it be a typo?

Someone create FUSE plugin, please :) http://fuse.sourceforge.net/

I almost got nerd-sniped by this (too busy today), but for anyone wanting to try:

http://code.google.com/apis/documents/docs/3.0/developers_gu...

http://github.com/fizx/fusefs-osx #Mac OS X fuse-ruby

http://rubyforge.org/projects/fusefs/ #Linux fuse-ruby

http://github.com/fizx/fusefs-osx/blob/master/sample/openuri... # Sample FS

Dropbox was mentioned 3 times so far in the comments but it does not seem that Google is going to release a windows client that would offer the same functionality..

Still it's an interesting development. Maybe dropbox could respond with adding support for google docs syncing if the API allows?

If there is a simple google api, some third party / open source developer, not having to worry about the backend infrastructure required, might create a client app to do this, which would compete with dropbox to some degree.

True. Until Google decides to code and release their client app, at which point Google will be in direct competition with Dropbox, and any third-party client to Google doc storage would be at a great disadvantage. I would guess that based on the adoption rate, a Google client app is not far into the future.

I think we should look to history to find any clues if Google would release an actual client that would be on par with the dropbox model.

They are notoriously reticent to do anything that installs on a client machine, Chrome being an obvious exception. I'm still skeptical they would release a client but it's definitely within the realm of possibility.

It may be more likely that either dropbox or other 3rd party tools will get into the game and start integrating their offerings with this.

They've had software installing on a client machine after acquisitions though - SketchUp, Picasa and Google Earth.

I don't think Google would release any non-Web clients. Just look at the sorrow state of Google Talk.

It's would most likely to be a browser plugin based on Gears or HTL5

Wonder how this will impact DropBox.

I wouldn't be surprised if Google is now in talks with Dropbox to acquire to them.

Why? What would Dropbox give Google that it doesn't sound like they've basically already built. (Other then the brand and all of it's users)

I agree, plus Dropbox is built on what is essentially a competitor's product. They'd likely have to do some significant re-engineering to make this work off of Google's Doc Store.

Google doesn't have the sync app(in public). That is what Dropbox is all about. Syncing data across different platforms. They could be building on internally so who knows.

Probably not at all. This is just cloud storage, albeit at a low price per GB. DropBox's secret sauce is its seamless sync across desktops and to the cloud.

I'm not sure if Google would even want to support the DropBox model, which makes desktops play nice with the cloud, whereas Google would rather have the desktop die. EDIT: Looks like Google does allow 3rd party apps to implement desktop sync though.

I only see pricing pressure on Dropbox at the moment. This is an opportunity for someone else to replicate Dropbox with Google Docs backend. I presume, such a replication will start off with a platform with additional functionality (like, Google Docs tie-in) is the advantage and perhaps existing Google customers to convert is easier.

The difference in price between amazon S3 (on top of which dropbox relies) and google is too big for dropbox to be competitive as it is now. Things must change.

Scenario1: Dropbox will have no other choice but switch their client to support google's API and, consequently, lower the price. They will gain a new load of customers and do fine.

Scenario2: google acquires dropbox. See scenario 1

Scenario3: google releases their own sync client/dropbox clone. Dropbox dies. Google wins doing evil (is competition evil?)

Scenario4: Google does like Pontius Pilate: releases API and let the market decide. Dropbox still likely to win.

Did I miss anything? It seems to me Dropbox has 1/4 chance of getting screwed, 3/4 of win.

For scenario 1: I guess a secondary question, if scenario 1 happens, what this means for S3 as a cloud storage solution? I know the market is not that big, but google's cost competitiveness on cloud storage has to have some effect.

2: I think the likelihood of this is low, unless Google does it to kill off dropbox.

3: I personally would probably use both, but for different reason, google's sync so I can remotely manage documents I want to use in google's apps, and dropbox for a quick and dumb file syncing for other stuff. I can see the competitiveness still working out here.

4: I agree, I'm a huge fan of dropbox, see #3 above.

What Google really needs to just do is pin the bow on their enterprise class document management system they clearly are building. Folks like documentum must be quaking in their boots.

Is there any concern over more privacy being in the hands of google with a new product like this? They are on a slippery slope and are about to understand everything about us.

It's really no more awareness than they already could potentially have if you use them for email, existing Google Docs, Latitude, GChat, Google Health, Checkout, Google groups, etc.

If you're concerned about your privacy you shouldn't be using any product that they have.

An API would be welcome, I know they will provide it.

I think you can just use:

http://code.google.com/apis/documents/docs/3.0/developers_gu...

Lift the 250MB per-file limit and I'm there! $0.25 for GB-year is the cheapest guaranteed price I've seen so far.

uhh, that's $0.25 per GB-year

Ahh!! Brain hurts. Corrected. I saw that. $0.25 for GB-month is not cheap. For a year it is very cheap. Just so used to everyone charging per month, I ended up typing that.

I will be moving from A-drive to google docs now. $.25 per GB a year is cheap.

it will be interesting to see how many users jump on this. Seems that if they can nab 3 million users like dropbox, it will make sense to add a windows/osx client and go head to head. hopefully not

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