Google isn’t slowing down any time soon and according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, they will soon be launching their very own personal cloud storage service which is said to be called Drive.

With the increased amount of data and improvement in technology, both online and offline, the popularity of cloud hosting services has skyrocketed over the last several years. Dropbox is one of those services that has done incredibly well in the space, and who has a loyal customer base that enjoys the simplicity of sharing and hosting their files.

Via ZDNet:

“Sources are reported to have said that, like most Google services, it will be free for free for most of its consumers… unless they require a lot of storage. How much is a lot? Good question. We don’t have any answers. Dropbox prices, which are typical for personal cloud storage, currently give users 2GB for free, then charges them $9.99 for 50 GB and $19.99 for 100 GB. Google’s response to this story is that “We do not comment on rumor or speculation.” OK. Fair enough.”

Now, for those who use Docs, you get 1GB of storage for free and can upload all sorts of different files. One can upgrade all the way to a whopping 16TB if need be. This service however will be different from the basic file hosting service through Docs.

The simple fact is, many people rely off of the tech giant’s services, anywhere from documents, to photos, to videos. People are already sharing a lot of their content with their services, so it just makes sense to allow users to have it hosted as well.

Would you use a Google cloud storage service if the prices were reasonable or would you stick to something else?

Google To Launch Cloud Storage Service, Will Compete With The Likes Of Dropbox is a post from: The Inquisitr

Mozy, an online backup service, has announced a new service called Stash which competes with Dropbox, a popular online backup service that allows you to drag and drop files on your desktop that are then instantly uploaded to the cloud.

Online backup has gained quite a bit of traction over the years. With faster Internet speeds and people having more and more data that is very important to not lose, it’s a good solution in case anything was to ever happen to your computer or hard drives.

Mozy has two different services. One for home and one for professionals. This new service is included for home customers, at least for the time being. 50GB of storage for 1 computer will run you $5.99 per month while 125GB of storage for up to 3 computers will run you $9.99 per month. Users can also add an extra computer for $2 per month and an additional 20GB of storage for $2 per month.

Via Geek:

“Some advanced functionality is missing at this point — most notably selective folder synchronization — but Mozy has just launched Stash as a public beta. They’re actively soliciting feedback from testers and will no doubt add some polish before the app is finally released. Stash will also be available for Android and iOS devices, and it’ll allow instant uploads of your photos and videos as you capture them. Support for MozyPro accounts is also coming, and the company says that should happen around summertime.”

How do you backup your data? Would a service such as Mozy Stash work for your needs?

Mozy Takes On Dropbox With New ‘Stash’ Service is a post from: The Inquisitr

It wasn’t that long ago, even by Internet time, that everyone who used the Dropbox; a file storage in the cloud service, got into a great big huff when the company changed their Terms of Service (ToS) so that law enforcement officers could help themselves to the contents of your Dropbox account as long as they had a warrant.

This of course was after Dropbox had built up a really nice user base because of their statement that individuals using the Dropbox service were the only ones who would be able to see the files in their private folder.

Now it seems that never mind about cops with warrants all anyone needs to be able to see anyone’s private files on Dropbox is a handy set of small Python scripts called Dropbox Reader.

Dropbox Reader is actually a series of six command line Python scripts which parse the configuration and cache files of a Dropbox account, including the user’s registered e-mail address, dropbox identifier, software version info and list of recently changed files stored in config.db, the information about shared directories and files marked for sync stored in filecache.db.

According to the readme file accompanying Dropbox Reader, the Python scripts operate on SQLite3 Dropbox database files which are typically stored in the ~/.dropbox directory on Linux and OS X machines, and in %AppData%\Dropbox on Windows machines.

via BetaNews

You just have to know that once word of this spread that the proverbial poop is going to hit the fan, and given the past reaction to the change of Dropbox’s ToS this isn’t going to end well.

Dropbox is in for another round of user anger thanks to Dropbox Reader is a post from: The Inquisitr

Popular file sharing and cloud storage service Dropbox has been blocked tonight by Google for hosting malware.

According to a message inserted by Google, Dropbox is a “Reported Attack Site!” that “has been reported as an attack site and has been blocked based on your security preferences.”

According to a secondary page, Dropbox hosts “malicious software includes 5 scripting exploit(s)” and has been “an intermediary for the infection of 3 site(s) including sifbasket.dk/, zhp.pl/, manskara.com/.

Google says though that “In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.”

Yeah, you reckon on that last statement?

Dropbox has been one of the most popular cloud hosting/ sharing sites that have emerged in the last two years. I use it on ever computer I own and I send files using Dropbox because it is a great service. Of perhaps millions of files, that Google has decided to block Dropbox is pathetically sad given that among the millions of links and files they deal in, maybe a handful in this case are bad.

Dropbox Blocked By Google For Malware is a post from: The Inquisitr

San Francisco based Dropbox started as a YCombinotor startup and went on to take a round from Sequoia, taking funding to $1.2 million. The Dropbox team is young, and stupid enough to believe they can make a business in a space where most give away storage for free, and others have failed. The business model, at least from what I can gather, revolves around charging people for additional storage above the 2gb they get for free. In Yes Minister speak, it’s a courageous business plan, and I wouldn’t be investing in the company based on it, but here’s why it might just work.

Dropbox is online storage done right.

The key selling points: quick and easy. The service supports Windows and Mac, and they’ve just launched a Linux client. Installation is easy, and on a Mac Dropbox appears in your places list, like any other folder. To use, you drop the file you want stored directly in, or save it directly to Dropbox from the program you are using, just like any other folder or location on your computer or private network. To access files, open Dropbox via Finder, and open the file, or access Dropbox from the program you’re in.

The biggest selling point for me: there’s no lag in opening a file unlike other services where you usually have to wait for the file to download. Using Dropbox feels like using files locally, even for someone like me on the other side of the world (try pinging a server in San Fran from Australia and you’ll know what I mean). In two months of use, I’ve never once had an issue with speed and ease of opening. It’s so good, that I switched from using my home network drive to share documents across computers to using Dropbox, because Dropbox was quicker! No, I don’t have a scientific speed test to prove that, I only know from using it. I don’t know how they’ve done it, but they have.

I’ve tried other online storage solutions before, and I still have iDisk access via my MobileMe account, but I’ve never stuck at one service for more than a couple of days due to the speed and ease of use issues. I’m two months in on Dropbox, and unless something comes along which is way better, I’m not giving it up.

Business plan aside, Dropbox is a winner. I test a lot of services, but far few end up being in the list of things I regularly use. Dropbox made that list.

Dropbox: online storage done right is a post from: The Inquisitr