When I happened to stumble upon this article yesterday, the last 2 paras caught my special attention.
The next step: the Gdrive
The fact that Google now thinks that it is able to handle the amount of data world wide Gmail requires may indicate that the next step is close at hand, namely the Google Platypus Gdrive.
The Gdrive is not public and you cannot use it yet. But the Google staff can. They can use Platypus as an online disk drive, saving not only email and documents, but any types of files. Welcome to the world of online computing!
I am beginning to wonder, is all this a part of Google's new vision, that of translating each and every offline computer application to an online one. Do they want to create an online equivalent for all offline activities performed on a computer. Are they trying to move the world towards a day when any action which could be performed on a PC today, can also be performed collaboratively online.
Here are some indications that hint such a vision:-
- GMail is virtually an online equivalent of Desktop mail applications like MS Outlook and Lotus, in terms of unlimited storage and archival of mails.
- Google Calender being a an online extension of the Calender functionality in Desktop mail applications.
- Google Docs and Spreadsheets are the online equivalents of word processors and spreadsheet applications like MS Word and Excel.
- There are rumors that Google plans to come up with an online version of MS Office itself, known as Google Office
- GDrive is the online equivalent of the Hard Disk.
I wonder if one day, Google will come up with a completely Online Desktop, when people would just log into their virtual desktops online, and perform all the functions they can with their physical desktops today.
1 comment:
Actually the plan might be even more elaborate - to basically become a 'Info Infrastructure Company'.
Just like today's telecom companies provide a service using their basic infrastructure - the same network is used by companies for data transfer, by end users for voice calls, (and soon) by media companies for onDemand TV etc.
Similarly, Google / Amazon etc will provide basic infrastructure like Online Data Storage (Amazon S3/ Platypus GDrive), online web trust services (Google Accounts, OpenID) and other such basics for creating a web based set up.
Thereafter it is for entreprenuers to use these platforms and create products on it. Already some new startups are using Amazon's services.
For More, Read this:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/amazons_series_fortunate_events.php
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