In tune with my method of forming headlines that distract from my writing’s lack of any real substance or originality, I’ve managed to summarize the whole point of this posting in a mere eight words. But for the sake of you taking the time to actually clicking through to my site, I’ll elaborate just that tiny bit more to make it worth your while.

Now, the fabled GDrive has been around for quite some time now (check out this news timeline for the last couple of years), albeit only in the wet dreams of tech-journos and bloggers. With companies providing online storage sprouting like the proverbial mushroom from the vast expanses of our dear Internet, everyone expected Google to come out with a solution as well. Which, considering they own roughly 90% of all active serverspace currently in existence, wouldn’t be too surprising a move (about that percentage: this is something I just made up, but feel free to quote me!).

Anyway, Google was largely unimpressed with everyone and their grandma pestering them to offer that kind of service already, but a couple of days ago, in a nonchalant move mirroring the actual impact of their announcement, the GDrive was introduced. Only that it’s not called that and that it adds another dimension to the term “underwhelming”.

Why? Well, here’s what it does. Basically, it’s an extension of Google Docs, the online document collaboration tool offered by Google for everyone with a Google account. Until now, the only files you could upload to Google Docs were those that are, well, some sort of document. As the more detailed announcement on the Google Docs blog says , they will start rolling out the ability to upload any kind of file (provided it’s not larger than 250mb), up to a limit of 1GB, with the option of buying more GB for a certain amount of money.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like it. It’s nice to be able to upload all sorts of shit and have it lounging about in my Google Docs window. It’s just, this isn’t anything they couldn’t have done 2 years ago. Actually, it isn’t anything anyone could’ve done 2 years ago with a bit of server space and some spare time on their hands. And yes, I do get the whole sharing idea, which, as we’re being told 24/7 by anyone who thinks you’re listening, is pivotal to the way the Internets work today. But hey, I’ve known of services that let you upload files and share them for, well, ages.

Which ones, you might ask? Well, there’s box.net, which has been around since the Nixon administration (I think), which does a fantastic job, has a great API and is overall one of the best online storage solutions ever. And then of course there’s everybody’s new darling Dropbox. Which, I might add, truly is one sexy little service (and with sexy I really mean useful, I just thought it might sounds sexier to call something sexy instead of useful – for reasons you might want to file under “trying to attract new audiences by using the word sexy”). Dropbox not only lets you upload files, it also offers to sync them to all your computers and portable devices.

Now, let’s return just real quick to that carefully crafted headline you’ve been subjected to at the start of this lengthy beast of an article. Ever since Google has proved to be not only good at search but also good at throwing money and manpower at anything they think might be a good addition to their services (everything), little startups have had it rough. After spending years developing a service and establishing and maintaining a user base, Google could simply step in, decide they want the same thing and suddenly your business model of charging users for what Google offers for free would seem a bit off.

With the GDrive though, Dropbox, Box.net and their myriad of colleagues have lucked out. Because even though the GDrive might be an interesting enhancement to Googel Docs, it’s nowhere near anything current online storage services offer, meaning that whoever runs Dropbox, etc., can now finally get some sleep again.

But the best thing about it all? People will now finally shut up about the GDrive.

I’ve been wanting to write a little bit about Fluxiom, Vienna based file storage and sharing app for a few days now. I was always too busy, and now Michael Arrington from TechCrunch is stealing my thunder. Read his review and you’ll have a good idea of what mine would have been like (only without the number crunching in the end…my research would have stopped after comparing prices).

The only thing I might have added was that the service I’m currently using, namely Box.net, seems to be doing it all right: They’ve got sharing, they’ve got tagging, there’s a mass upload feature (through a Java applet…Michael Arrington seemed to have missed that when he wrote in his review that no other service provides mass upload). The good thing about this approach compared to Fluxiom’s? No need to zip!
They are also a lot more generous with their space, giving away 1GB for free, and 5GB once you’ve referred five friends.

I’d have really loved to like Fluxiom (they are from Vienna after all), but as they are that outrageously priced and their basic plan doesn’t even provide the features that would actually make them different from Box.net (full-text search, version check), I’d be crazy to actually pay that much money.

Once in a while I like showcasing new webservices I’m infatuated with. If you’ve come for the inane chatter usually prevalent in this spot, just skip this entry. More of that some other time.
The service I want to present today has been getting quite a bit of buzz lately, mainly because they’ve struck a few nice deals with other popular services. I’m of course talking about everyone’s darling web-storage company box.net (the really smart ones among you may have guessed that from looking at the picture in the top left corner). Now, what is so extremely nice about web storage? I mean, you don’t usually write an entry about that storage garage you’ve rented for your old furniture. Well, here’s the catch: it’s not simply web-storage, it’s web-storage in a web 2.0 manner (and it’s of course not furniture).

Web 2.0 you say? That buzz-word that’s been around for too long already? Well, yes, only that it’s not just a buzz-word but also an actual collection of distinct features. And these features can be observed in box.net, almost textbook style. Time for bullet points:
* Sharing: Yes, you can store your stuff and you can share it with your friends.
* Tagging: Although tags don’t get anyone excited anymore, they keep being helpful. Assign as many tags as you want to your files. That’s bound to make your life easier when you start having a lot of files stored.
* Ajax interface: A nice, clean interface sprinkled with piece of Ajax use. Very intuitive and lean.
* Rounded corners: No web 2.0 company can be taken seriously without them. Seriously. No, I really mean it.

Apart from these features, box.net also offers a bunch of other stuff that just make life easy (well, if your life consists of playing with web-storage services, but nevertheless). First of all, box.net offers 1 GB of free storage and 5 GB storage in their premium package. And if you’ve got a loyal circle of friends who don’t mind being spammed with invitations, you can actually be upgraded to their premium service simply by referring five friends. Even I managed to turn five people onto the service. And if I found five people, you can as well, trust me.

As I mentioned above, box.net is collaborating with a few other webservices, most notably Netvibes, the best of the starting pages currently around (here’s my entry about them from a while back). Thanks to their collaboration I can access the files I’ve got stored on box.net directly from withing my Netvibes starting page. Which is as easy as platform independent access to files can be implemented.

Overall it can be said that box.net is one of those services you never knew you’d need, but once you’ve used it for a while, you just won’t be able to do without.