Google Drive rumors have been around for many years, and they've always conformed to the understanding of "The Cloud" that has prevailed at the time. If it's not like Apple's iCloud, which is integrated into Apple's devices, then it must be like Dropbox, which lives on the Web but syncs through a client. But think outside the box for a minute. Google has new and unique cloud services that Dropbox and Apple don't. There's room for a third, stand-out option here.

Google already has a browser-based file system, Google Docs. It originated as a sort of word processor in the cloud, but it can actually handle and store many kinds of files, such as PDFs, JPEG images, MPEG audio and video, and it'll handle pretty much anything containing text. That does make it a pretty compelling stand-in for Dropbox when it comes to simply storing files.

It even has a nice disk drive icon now, after last year's Google makeovers. Google Drive, indeed:

Are people already using Google Docs as a cloud drive? Spanning, a company that provides backup for Google apps users (not just Google Apps users; free customers, too), took a look into how thousands of people are using it, and it studied their use to better optimize its services. Consequently, it has some insights into Google apps users to share.

Spanning has found that over half of the files in their customers' Docs accounts were not Google Apps-created. They were PDFs, audio, video, photos and Microsoft Office files. By file size, non-Google files comprised over 85% of the stuff people stored in their Docs accounts.

So, at least for the use case of storing files, lots of people are already using Google Docs instead of Dropbox. What Docs does that Dropbox doesn't is allow users to create and edit certain kinds of files. If you use Google Docs as your cloud document service, you're probably using it to make and work on documents, too. That's more than Dropbox can offer, standing on its own. (We'll get to apps built on top of Dropbox in a minute.)

Search, plus Your World

There's a new Google product that didn't exist last time the Google Drive rumors surfaced. It's Google. Or rather, it's Google+. On January 10, Google revealed Search, plus Your World, which threw everybody for a loop. If you don't understand that Google+ is the user-centric backbone of Google itself now, it doesn't make sense that this one side of Google search has stuff from this weird social network in it.

While this early stage of Search+ is definitely about putting Google+ in users' faces, that's not what the message is. "Your World" does not consist solely of YouTube videos shared on social networks. Google's personalized search also tries to figure out what a search means to you, so it can return something more meaningful. It's two modes of search: Global mode searches the indexed Web, and personal mode tailors it to you.

How much more useful would this be if Google's personalized search had your files in it? If your Google Drive contained your documents and music and other local files, they could show up in your personalized search results. If you couldn't remember whether you read something online or in a document you downloaded, Search+ could find both. Now we're giving meaning to the "Your World" part.

Dropbox has search, but it only contains part of what you're looking for when you search "your world." It's more useful as one of many services in a third-party cloud search app like Greplin, which also logs into Google apps and searches across. Google's new social signals run through all its services now, so if it's in your Google cloud, Google search will find it, period.

Dropbox Is A Platform. It'll Be Fine.

Between Docs and Search+, whatever Drive Google eventually ships (whether it's in a few weeks or another X years) will have lots of unique capabilities that make it a different beast from Dropbox.

That's exactly the way Dropbox wants it.

Dropbox turned down insane amounts of money from Apple, because it didn't want to get rolled in as a feature of one integrated system. That's why iCloud doesn't work like Dropbox. Apple wanted cloud syncing that was just there, so users don't have to know where their files are. Developers in the Apple ecosystem can just hook into iCloud. Their applications become Apple-specific. In exchange, they get free marketing in the App Store, and if Apple is feeling generous it features their apps as the App Of The Week or something.

Dropbox said "no" to all that. It wants to be the next Apple or Google, and its valuation seems optimistic about that possibility. Apple's cloud is totally integrated with its devices, using hardware as the platform. Google's cloud is integrated with its services, using the Web as a platform. Dropbox is a platform.

Dropbox lets different clients on different systems read and write to it. Dropbox doesn't have a Google Docs because anyone can build a word processor on top of it. We can build a thousand word processors on top of it, and if they can all read the same file format, they can all work together. Dropbox's platform ubiquity is what it's all about, and that's why Google (and Apple) can't copy it.

Lead photo: AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA / Shutterstock.com

What makes this dialog interesting is that this is likely the first time Google has brought all of these services together and also made it easy to search for documents across all of these services. Of course, in the context of Google Sites, it makes perfect sense to see all of these assets in one dialog, but until now you couldn't directly access Picasa's albums from Google Sites, for example.

We can't be sure if this is really a harbinger of the Google Drive, but hopefully Google will bring this interface to other services like Gmail or even Google Wave.

Although we know this service exists in some form as an internal tool, Google has yet to release a version for public use. But with the latest announcements about the new Chrome operating system, we wonder: will Google Drive finally become a reality thanks to Chrome OS?

In January of this year, blogger Brian Ussery discovered an interesting tidbit of information tucked into a file used by Google Pack, the bundle of tools that Google thinks computer users need to set up a new machine. The file contained a reference to a product called GDrive, described as an "online file backup and storage" system:

"GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device - be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone."

Of course, the blogosphere immediately went crazy over this information, sure that this time Google Drive was about to become a reality. And yet, like all the times before, nothing happened. GDrive didn't launch, Google didn't release any announcement, and disappointed bloggers everywhere moved on...again.

Still, the hope for a true GDrive system just won't die. It very well may be one of the blogosphere's longest-running rumors. And now, with the recent announcement of Google's new Chrome Operating System, an OS where "web-based applications will automatically work," we wonder: will the mythical GDrive be included with the OS?

GDrive Needs Picasa Integration

From what we already know, Google has somewhat integrated Picasa into the backend of Google Docs, but, for whatever reason, they have not yet switched this on. To see what we mean, visit this link: http://docs.google.com/#photos. You'll be taken to Google Docs where a message will appear "No Photos." In other words, Picasa image search works in Google Docs, but there's nothing for it to search until the two services are fully integrated. But this functionality was discovered nearly a year ago. What's the holdup?

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Picasa, unlike Docs, is a combination of desktop software and a web service. The service's Web Albums feature is more like flickr, a place where photos are shared either publicly or privately with friends and family. However, it's the desktop software that provides the organizational and editing tools needed to manage your photo library. Integrating Picasa into Google Docs now would only be a partially complete user experience - you still need the desktop software component to access all the functionality the service provides.

Maybe Google is waiting to provide that complete experience via Chrome OS? It's not that far-fetched. Picasa is already available in a Linux version (and Chrome OS will sit on a Linux kernel). But perhaps what really has us hopeful was one extra word in the Google Chrome OS announcement:

"...most of the user experience takes place on the web."

Most? Maybe Chrome OS will let you manage your photos via desktop software that integrates with a web service and is accessible via your Google Docs interface? Will that interface then be "GDrive?"

GDrive Needs Music...Or Does It?

If you can't save your tunes online to your cloud storage drive, then you don't really have any cloud storage drive worth using, do you? Even if Google Docs added in Picasa, we'd still be looking at an incomplete GDrive solution if we didn't have access to our music. For GDrive to become the true "hard drive in the sky" it needs to accommodate other sorts of files besides just documents and photos.

It would make sense if Google leveraged their existing partnership with Amazon, who provides the music store on the T-Mobile G1 and the myTouch 3G, phones running Google's mobile phone OS called Android. With Amazon's online interface, you can already browse, listen to samples, and buy MP3s via the web.

The question is, will Chrome OS integrate some sort of music store for letting you buy music (maybe via Amazon) from your computer? And if so, will you be able to download and save those files to the hard drive of the computer itself? Or will Google come up with some revolutionary new "music in the cloud" service that lets you accumulate an online library of songs available at any time for streaming from your computer? Or then again, does Chrome OS even need an iTunes alternative in order to compete? Maybe they will simply offer a web app like Pandora. There have been no hints as to what direction Google will go with this or if they will ignore users' need for music altogether in the new OS.

But like this author's sister recently said after being told about Chrome OS: "why would I want a computer that couldn't run iTunes?"

We hope Google will keep that in mind.

GDrive and Video?

Would a true GDrive solution offer a way for users to store video files, too? It almost seems redundant to have an online storage system for video since Google also owns the giant video sharing portal that is YouTube. Still, you couldn't really have a cloud storage system that restricted you to storing only documents and photos and call it "GDrive." But integrating the supposed GDrive with YouTube - especially via Chrome OS - could be tough. Today, videos still need to be on your computer's hard drive for editing purposes. And, of course, uploading a file from your computer is how you get them online to sites like YouTube. Althouugh GDrive could easily include a way for you to view your online files at YouTube, getting them there via Chrome OS would be more difficult. However, if Chrome OS allowed you to save files on its hard drive, then the YouTube uploader built into Chrome could simply know to look in that particular video storage location when you go to publish them online. Making this a seamless experience for the end user would be the challenge. Again, there are no hints as to Google's plans in this department, but it would seem odd if Chrome OS didn't attempt to integrate one of Google's top properties deep into its system.

What Else?

Although this article is just pure speculation, we think that if we ever see GDrive revealed, there's a chance that it would occur when it's introduced as a part of Chrome OS. What do you think?

You can already store your photos on Picasa Web Albums (though the amount of free storage is very limited). However, once you pay Google, your Gmail storage and Picasa storage limits become one - so Google clearly has at least some unified infrastructure for doing some of the back-end work in place already. According to a document (PDF) unearthed by Google is Watching You, that is exactly what Google is planning to do with the GDrive.

Google has enough clout to take online storage mainstream. While this directly benefits Google, it will also benefit the cloud storage industry in general, as the big name behind the product will drive up the general comfort level with online storage.

There are, of course, numerous small and medium sized-companies that offer online storage in some form or another. The smartest ones integrate directly with your desktop, so that you can seamlessly move data between the cloud and your own machine. A large number of other services also offer backup services, though without directly integrating this with your desktop. While all of these offerings are interesting, none have really made it into the mainstream yet.

What the GDrive is Up Against

Google's biggest competitor in this business is most likely going to be Microsoft, which has just started its push for cloud computing and storage. With its Live Drive, Microsoft offers 25GB of storage to all of its millions of Windows Live users. But Microsoft wouldn't be Microsoft if it didn't also offer ten different online storage solutions that can't speak to each other. You can also use LiveSync to transfer data between your own computers, Live Mesh for syncing and online storage, and Office Live Workspace for managing and storing office documents. And these are just Microsoft's consumer products in this space.

If Google gets the GDrive right, it will be able to offer one single online storage solution that does all of what Microsoft's plethora of tools does, but through one unified user interface and service. If the descriptions of the GDrive that have surfaced over the last week turn out to be true, then Google wants to offer a solution for all your files, including documents, photos, and (interestingly) music.

If Google can also offer solutions to access these files on mobile phones (besides Android) and if it offers a good integration with the desktop, then it could surely become the company that takes cloud storage into the mainstream.

Now we just have to wait for the actual release of the GDrive...

Why would you like a Google Drive service? For the presumably very low price point (free?), for the ease of backing up important data or for the potential integration of stored data into other powerful Google services? There's lots of reasons to perk up your ears when rumors like this pop up.

GMail As Possible Home for GDrive

Gmail Product Manager Todd Jackson told Webware last week that:

"We know people's file sizes are getting bigger. They want to share their files, keep them in the cloud, and not worry about which computer they're on. Google wants to be solving these problems."

That's all well and good, and we know that Gmail already does a lot of storage. It could be the home from which a GDrive is spun out. But is there anything more solid than that?

Picassa Hints

Sterling also points to coverage last night on Google watchdog site Google Blogoscoped where a screenshot from Picassa offers the option to upload photos to "Google Web Drive." The conversation in comments on that post is quite interesting, as well, including a mention of what looks to us like a possible placeholder for storing photo albums in Google Docs and a mock-up screenshot of what one Blogoscoped reader thinks the GDrive product could look like.

Security Concerns

For as long as Google has been rumored to be building a GDrive product, there have been concerns about how solid the company's control over user data security is. From all too common cases of "oops, your GMail account vanished" to more than one of the company's own official blogs being hacked, there's something a little worrisome about the security of a Google Drive.

Just as important a set of concerns though could be around Google's incredible control over so much of our data already. The company has its fingers in so many pies that it's hard to believe it warrants more trust, just on principle.

It's a vexing situation. The potential awesomeness of Google services is incredible. The actual delivered value of new services is often disappointing. The company has committed relatively few offenses against propriety with its incredible power (China notwithstanding) but the potential for abuse is incredible.

Do you want a Google Drive? Do you believe one's really coming? What would you like it to do?