Google isn't new to online storage, it's been keeping your photos (Picasa), documents (Google Docs), and other files in the cloud for years. But now the company is gearing up to
launch a product that is
purely focused on file
storage and synchronization.
谷歌(Google)并非初次尝试在线存储业务,它旗下的照片存储产品Picasa、文档存储产品Google Docs以及其他云端的文件存储服务已经运营多年。现在,这家公司正在全力以赴准备发布一款专门用于文件存储和同步服务的产品。
The product is called Google Drive and it is likely to go after the same problem that online services like Dropbox and SugarSync are
trying to solve: how to add a file to your desktop and
access it from all your other computers and mobile devices. You edit a file say a
presentation on one
device and the changes are
instantly propagated to all your other devices.
这款产品叫做Google Drive,它与Dropbox及SugarSync等在线服务致力于解决相同的问题,即在一台电脑上保存文件后
如何在所有其他的电脑和移动设备上获取这个文件。你在一个设备上编辑了一个文件,如一个演示文稿,所作的改动立刻就被发布到其他设备上。
The rumors started in February when The Wall Street Journal reported that Google is 'expected to
launch in the coming weeks or months' a
mostly free online
storage service called Drive. Tech blog Gigaom later reported that Google Drive is coming in April and, if recent leaks are any indication, this is very likely to happen.
有关Google Drive的传言今年2月份就出现了。《华尔街日报》当时报道说,预计谷歌该项名为Drive的服务将于未来数周或数月内面世,而且将对大部分消费者和企业免费。科技博客Gigaom后来报道,Google Drive将在4月亮相,如果最近走漏出来的风声可做参考的话,Google Drive很可能就要发布了。
Gadgets blog The Verge discovered a Google Drive integration page on Lucidchart, an online diagramming and flowcharting tool, that suggests third-party developers will be able to integrate Google Drive into their own apps and websites. For instance, if you are
writing a
document using a text editor on your iPad, the app can offer you an option to save that file directly on your Google Drive account.
科技产品博客The Verge在在线图表绘制工具Lucidchart上发现了一个Google Drive的整合页面,该页面意味着,第三方开发者将能够把Google Drive整合到他们自己的应用程序和网站上。例如,如果你正在用iPad上的文本编辑工具撰写文档,这款应用能够为你提供一个选项,让你可以直接将文档保存在Google Drive的账户上。
Another leaked screenshot of Google Drive obtained by Venturebeat suggests that the service will offer five gigabytes of free
storage space and that Google users can pay to add more gigabytes. You currently have to pay $5 a year to add an extra 20 GB of
storage space to your Google Docs
account and a similar fee
structure might be offered for Google Drive as well. Dropbox on the other hand offers two GB of free storage, though you can add more
storage space to your
account by referring friends to the service.
另一个由Venturebeat网站获取的Google Drive界面截屏显示,该服务将提供5G的免费存储空间,用户可以花钱购买更多的存储空间。Google Docs目前的价格是,每年花五美元可以增加额外20G的存储空间,Google Drive很可能采用相似的资费标准。相比之下,云存储提供商Dropbox提供2G的免费存储空间,不过用户可以通过向朋友推荐该服务获得更多的存储空间。
TechCrunch discovered a desktop app for Google Drive, while a Google Drive
launchpartner told The Next Web that the service is expected to
launch in the middle of next week and that it will be
available on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.
科技博客TechCrunch发现了为Google Drive服务的桌面应用程序,而Google Drive的发布伙伴告诉The Next Web网站,该服务预计将在下周的中间几天发布,并可以在搭载Windows、Mac、安卓以及iOS等系统的设备上使用。
The
domain drive.google.com also exists, though there's nothing of interest there at this time except for a robots.txt file an entry in this file (Allow: /a/) indicates that Google Drive is likely to be
available for Google Apps users as well. The stage is set.
drive.google.com的域名也已经存在,不过上面除了一个名为robots.txt的文档外还没有什么让人感兴趣的东西。该文档中的一条记录(Allow:/a/)意味着,谷歌企业应用套件(Google Apps)的用户也可以使用Google Drive。如此看来,谷歌已经一切准备就绪。
Google Drive could well be Google's biggest
consumer product in recent years, after Google Plus, and it seems to have all the
potential to take off.
Google Drive很可能成为谷歌在发布Google Plus之后在近些年来推出的最重要的消费产品,而且很有可能会大受欢迎。
Google's biggest advantage, other than its
massive user base, is that it can easily integrate other popular services into Google Drive without having to rely on third-party developers to build the connections. For example, you may be able to save your Gmail attachments directly into Google Drive and
access them offline. Or you may connect Google Docs with Google Drive and edit your online documents on a desktop without requiring
external synchronization apps.
除了庞大的用户群之外,谷歌最大的优势是可以轻易地将其他用户数量众多的服务整合到Google Drive上,而不需要依靠第三方软件开发者。例如,你可以直接将Gmail邮箱中的附件存储到Google Drive里,然后离线获取该附件。或者,你可以将Google Docs和Google Drive进行关联,在电脑上编辑在线文档,而不需要提供同步服务的外部应用。
And because Google Drive will work with your existing Gmail or Google Account, it also means that you have one less password to remember.
此外,Google Drive将与你现有的Gmail或谷歌账户同步,这意味着你可以少记一个密码了。