Google Drive Goes Live

Google has officially announced the release of the long-awaited and long-rumored online file sharing service Google Drive earlier today. Users have been eagerly expecting the arrival of Google Drive after evidence of a Mac app and interface screenshot were published last week.

Like other online file sharing services, Google Drive allows users to conveniently upload, access and share all their files (photos, videos, documents, PDFs, etc.). It also allows users to edit files in real-time making it easy collaborate and work with other people.

Here are some of the things that you can do with Google Drive:

• Create and collaborate – because Google Docs is built into Google Drive, several users can work on documents, spreadsheets and presentations in real-time.
• Store everything safely and access it anywhere (especially while on the go) – All your files are stored in the cloud so you can access it anytime, anywhere you want. Google Drive can be installed on a Mac or PC computer, iOS or Android device.
• Search everything – Users can search for specific files using filters like keywords and file types. Google Drive can also recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. It allows users to open 30 different file types directly from the browser.

Google Drive provides users with 5GB of FREE storage space. If that isn’t enough to store all your documents, photos, videos and other files, you can purchase additional storage – 25GB @ $2.49/month, 100GB @ $4.99/month, 1TB @ $49.99/month up to 16TB @ $799.99/month. The pricing is quite cheap if you compare it to Dropbox who offers 100GB @ $19.99/month. As a bonus, users who purchase additional storage automatically gets a Gmail storage upgrade of 25GB from the regular 10GB limit.

Google Drive is an open platform so Google is working with third-party developers to create apps that will enable users to do more stuff like signing documents, designing flowcharts, managing projects and tasks, etc. Third-party Google Drive apps can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store.

Right now, Google Drive can be installed on any Mac or Windows-powered computer, laptops with Google Chrome OS or Android-powered devices. The iOS version is still in the works and will be available within the next few weeks. I’m excited to try out and use Google Drive. My account isn’t ready yet so I might have to wait a few more days or weeks before I can take it for a spin.

What do you think of Google Drive? Anyone already have it enabled in their Google account? What other features would you like to see added to Google Drive? Please share your thoughts via comments.