Google today announced the following:
We're happy to announce that over the next few weeks we will be rolling out the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. With this change, you'll be able to upload and access your files from any computer -- all you need is an Internet connection.
Instead of emailing files to yourself, which is particularly difficult with large files, you can upload to Google Docs any file up to 250 MB. You'll have 1 GB of free storage for files you don't convert into one of the Google Docs formats (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year.
Nice, right? Not according to Microsoft:
Windows Live has been offering its more than 450 million customers 25 GB of cloud-based storage space for free through Windows Live SkyDrive since 2008. For more than a year now, Windows Live customers have been able to upload many different types of files to the cloud – including large graphic files, MP3s, PDFs, videos, and more – allowing them to access to their files and information anywhere and everywhere they have access to the Web.
Additionally, Windows Live customers will be able to collaborate more efficiently on the cloud with the forthcoming suite of Office Web apps hosted on SkyDrive – web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote – that are currently in a limited beta.
Microsoft makes a good point here ("been there, done that"). But one thing I really like on the Google side is the ability to buy additional storage if you need it. Granted, that's probably not as big a deal as 25 GB for free. But I'd love the option. Either way, the competition here will benefit us all. I'm sure Microsoft will eventually add paid storage options. Just like I'm sure that Google's paltry 1 GB for free will eventually go up.
