Internet abuzz with Google GDrive rumors

Computerworld - Brian Ussery, a blogger and director of SEO technology at Search Discovery Inc., sparked a lot of reports the past few days after writing last week that he found information that points to an unveiling soon of the long-talked-about but never seen Google GDrive.

"The text from http://pack.google.com/cistrings.js, which was modified last week, seems to be more compelling proof that Google's GDrive is nearing launch ready status," wrote Ussery. "Interesting to note the potential of GDrive access via cellular phone, music file storage and it perhaps being offered via Google Pack."

In an e-mail to Computerworld, a Google spokesman said, "We don't have anything to announce right now."

GDrive is said to be an online storage service that would enable users to store their data, whether music files, spreadsheets or word processing documents.

John Byrne, a senior analyst at Technology Business Research, said that he's not sure of a timeline for GDrive but that it's a move in the right direction.

"It's yet another move toward having everything in the cloud," said Byrne. "It's clearly where we're all headed. More and more of the services and features we're used to getting on our PCs and systems will come from the cloud. IBM and Microsoft all have visions of it."

Byrne noted that as Google Apps, which includes online services like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs, is more widely used, its online documents need to be stored somewhere. Thus, GDrive could become a natural part of Google Apps, he surmised.

"Storage is one piece of that puzzle," he added. "If you think about having a cloud doing all these things, you need your applications, spreadsheets and pictures accessed from the cloud like you do from your computer now."

Google has been releasing several updates and new technologies recently.

Today, the company launched the latest version of Google Earth, which adds much greater detail of the Earth's oceans, including a map of the ocean floor.

And last week, Google announced that it was launching what it calls Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open system that researchers and consumers can use to access its new Internet performance measurement tools.

In the same week, the online behemoth also launched an updated version of the hosted Google Gmail e-mail service that lets users access their accounts without an Internet connection. The updated service allows users to read, write and archive e-mail messages while flying in an airplane.

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