Is Google doing to the desktop computer what McDonald's did to food?
Word is out that the most ambitious product in Google's portfolio is coming out fast. According to industry reports Google is planning to launch a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection. This means that Google would have access to all of your personal data - making the "G" in Google more synonymous with God or Government perhaps.
Essentially with the G-Drive all of your data and programs would reside on the Google server and you would use a browser to access it. When you think about the possibilities G Drive could hurt the typical new operating system demand that Microsoft spurs each time they release a new OS.
Assuming the GDrive looks hot on a browser it could make computing for the masses somewhat utilitarian - and thus all you'd need is a crap computer with a browser to do most of your day to day tasks. Yay.
All Your Data Are Belong To Google
Hmmm, perhaps Ronald McDonald would be proud, but if you ask me I think there will be many users who prefer not to store their data on the Borg. Although I do believe cloud computing is going to play a big role with the future of personal computing, there is nothing like doing your photography, videos, playing games, and running other task demanding applications on your own system.
The question I suppose for you speculators out there is how many people actually do all or any of that on their computers?
I think the answer is complicated....I started on an Apple //c when I was like 11 years old - and I kept graduating to new systems. I went from Apple's to an Amiga 500 - and eventually to my own Voodoo. My kids started on a high performance Voodoo. As new generations are growing up on computers using new technology, it's unlikely that dumb terminals will be attractive to such users.
..but if Google's G-Drive is a total application that effectively hides the browser and makes it look like an entirely new OS, I could see many people jumping on board. Many many people. Wow, G-Drive could put the Net into the Netbook.
