July 13, 2006

Corsin Carmicheal stumbled upon a page hosted on Google's servers (the page has now been removed) that offers life to a Web service that has been in the rumor mill for almost a year.

The screenshot below suggests that GDrive works with Windows, Linux and Mac computers, allowing users to store files on Google's servers so they could be accessed from anywhere with just an Internet connection.

Question: Why would someone want to store their files on Google's servers? Here are a few features that can answer that question:

1) Backups - If you lose your computer, buy a new one and reinstall Platypus. Your files will be on your new machine in almost no time.

2) Synchronization - Keep all your computers synchronized, even if they run different operating systems.

3) VPN-less access - Your're not at a Google computer? View your files on the Internet at http://troutboard.com/p.

4) Collaborate - Create shared spaces to which multiple Googlers can write to.

5) Disconnected access - On the plane? VPN broken? All your files are still accessible!

These points make it clear Platypus is still an internal project — but the "Find a new bug, get a free Platypus t-shirt" message also suggests that Google is working hard to find and fix bugs for a public release.

Source: ZD Net Blog