Google GDrive Being Tested
Signs of Google GDrive have surfaced, apparently via a bug in Writely which revealed the Google GDrive homepage. Blogger Corsin Camichel was snooping around Writely and was appending different index pages such as index.js and index.py. But, according to Corsin, when he entered index.html he was redirected to a download page for Google GDrive (codenamed Platypus).
Camichel writes:
Google really IS testing GDrive, and the features look great:
* Backup. If you lose your computer, grab a new one and reinstall Platypus. Your files will be on your new machine in minutes.
* Sync. Keep all your machines synchronized, even if they run different operating systems.
* VPN-less access. Not at a Google computer? View your files on the web at http://troutboard.com/p.
* Collaborate. Create shared spaces to which multiple Googlers can write.
* Disconnected access. On the plane? VPN broken? All your files are still accessible.
Trying to lend some credibility to this blogosphere discovery which is sure to set off yellow-red hoax alerts among the searchosphere, Camichel also provides a screenshot of Google GDrive.
Philipp Lessen at Google Blogoscoped adds : It seems to be very likely this one isn’t fake, though of course you never know… all we do know is the page was on Writely, and Google acquired Writely a while ago.
Ironically, Camichel made a backup of Google GDrive Platypus which can be used for viewing the GDrive page source code, which seems to be authored by Justin Rosenstein (jr@google.com) and also hides this descriptive copy:
Publish.
All of the files you store on Platypus are automatically accessible from the (corporate) web.Share.
Other Googlers can mount your Platypus folders and open your files in read-only mode.Collaborate.
Create shared spaces to which multiple Googlers can write.Disconnected access.
On the plane? VPN broken? All your files are still accessible.Local IO speeds.
Open and save as quickly as you could if you were accessing them from your C: drive.
