Move over Windows, GDrive is coming!

27 January 2009

Taking computing to a new 'cloud', Gmail is soon going to launch 'GDrive', a long-rumored online storage system for its users. While search engine giant Google refused to confirm the move, technology pundits are convinced that the service will be launched this year.

In what is called 'cloud computing', GDrive would work as an online hard disk and could essentially work as a syncing device that will periodically update itself with the activities that take place on a computer. This would enable users to access their personal computer data from any internet connection.

The GDrive could also partially replace the physical hard disk that a user needs to select an operating system (OS) for usage - that is, after the initial booting. The GDrive system will merge all of Google's existing web-based services to make them easier to use together.

The development could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive, predict technology experts. Instead, a user's personal files and operating system could be stored on Google's own servers and accessed via the internet. ''Throw your hard drive away, Google's Gdrive is arriving in 2009,'' TG Daily, an American technology news website, predicted.

Described by the reputed website as "the most anticipated Google product so far", it is seen as a paradigm shift away from Microsoft's Windows operating system, which runs inside most of the world's computers, in favour of processing and storage done thousands of miles away. This brings Google ''one step closer to dethroning Windows on your desktop''.

Google experts are said to have begun convincing the world of the benefits of cloud computing. In fact, if you take Google provisions seriously, you may have already shifted your photograph and document base to at least one of the Google services that work as great archiving hubs. However, space restriction and reliability could be a user's concern while depending on the Google servers to save their precious data.