Google to begin offering Cloud storage

In the "coming weeks" you will find that your Google Docs account will allow you to upload any kind of file for online storage.

Google Docs will support uploading any kind of file as long as it is under 250MB in size. You will then be able to store your videos, raw images, zip files etc in your Docs account, with the same sharing features. However collaboration, which is a quite important part of Google Docs, will not be possible for formats which are not supported by Google Docs natively, you will instead be able to preview and download the file.

In conjunction with the Shared Folders feature which Google unveiled some times ago, this makes Google Docs a quite powerful means of storing and sharing files. With shared folders you can give others access to a folder in your Google Docs account such that any files added to it automatically get shared instead of needing you to do the same one at a time.

Much like the free Picasa storage, Google Docs will offer 1GB of space, and will give users the option of purchasing additional storage. Any additional storage will be shared with Picasa Web Albums and GMail -- as is done now -- in a manner such that any overflow in capacity in any Google service will automatically use the purchased capacity. Those using premium versions of Google Docs included in Google Apps can also use their Google Docs accounts as remote backups. 

The storage will provide "plenty of bandwidth for ordinary use" however Google reserve the right to "limit your access" in case of excessive usage.

This is move is not that surprising, considering that Google is trying to push its own Cloud based operating system. It is quite expected that Google will try to offer as many essential cloud services as possible under its banner before they launch their Chrome OS netbooks.