Google Drive is finally here after years of waiting! Just in time to jump to cloud syncing/storage bandwagon. Microsoft has released their new SkyDrive 2 days ago.

Dropbox now faces some serious competition. I am a paying Dropbox user (Dropbox Pro 50 (50GB plan) – US$99/year) for almost 2 years now and I have used up about 95% of my storage space and I didn’t want to go to the Pro 100 (100GB plan) because at US$199/year it is pretty expensive. I hope this competition will drive down the prices for Dropbox, if not I would have to switch to Google Drive or Microsoft SkyDrive.

Google Drive Features

  • Create and collaborate. Google Docs is built right into Google Drive, so you can work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Once you choose to share content with others, you can add and reply to comments on anything (PDF, image, video file, etc.) and receive notifications when other people comment on shared items.
  • Store everything safely and access it anywhere (especially while on the go). All your stuff is just… there. You can access your stuff from anywhere—on the web, in your home, at the office, while running errands and from all of your devices. You can install Drive on your Mac or PC and can download the Drive app to your Android phone or tablet. We’re also working hard on a Drive app for your iOS devices. And regardless of platform, blind users can access Drive with a screen reader.
  • Search everything. Search by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Drive can even recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Let’s say you upload a scanned image of an old newspaper clipping. You can search for a word from the text of the actual article. We also use image recognition so that if you drag and drop photos from your Grand Canyon trip into Drive, you can later search for [grand canyon] and photos of its gorges should pop up. This technology is still in its early stages, and we expect it to get better over time.

Google Drive Price Plans

  • 5GB – Free
  • 25GB – US$2.49/month – US$29.88/year
  • 100GB – US$4.99/month – US$59.88/year
  • 1TB – US$49.99/month – US$599.88/year
  • When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB.

Microsoft SkyDrive Price Plans

  • 7GB – Free
  • +20GB – US$0.84/month – US$10/year
  • +50GB – US$2.04/month – US$25/year
  • +100GB – US$4.17/month – US$50/year

Dropbox Price Plans

  • 2GB – Free
  • 50GB – US$9.99/month – US$99.99/year
  • 100GB – US$19.99/month – US$199.99/year

If you are not too sure whether is Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive or even Dropbox is suitable for you, check out the following articles:

Official Blog Post: Introducing Google Drive… yes, really