1月 14 2010
What Google Docs Storage means to Social Web
On early 13th Jan. (JST), Google unveiled something we’ve been calling “GDrive”, as part of Google Docs’ functionality. You can use up to 1GB for free, add 1GB/$0.25 per year. Slightly different from what we(maybe only I)’ve expected was, Google doesn’t offer client application for this. But don’t worry, there’s already an API. Sooner or later, Google itself, or third party will definitely release Dropbox-like client software, I’m sure.
By the way, did you notice that this online storage means more than just a storage?
SocialWeb and Access Control
I’ve been insisting that, web will act like operating system in the future, and social web will be important part of it. Here’s ideas:
- SocialWeb will be too common to notice it exists.
- Global identity will be required.
- Social Graph will be tied with identity and will be portable.
- Social Graph will be ported to phones, TVs, etc. as well as web services.
- Social Graph will control accesses, as well as used to share or invite someone.
- File systems will eventually have ACL using Social Graph.
I’ve been thinking the last one will be future, but…
ACL on Google Docs
Google Docs Storage seems to have social ACL functionality. As you know, Google Docs originally have Access Control: When you create a doc, it’s basically private. Then, you can publish it to public, or share it with groups or people individually, by specifying his/her email address. Mail address of course, will be auto-completed as you type, derived from Gmail contact list. You can give read/write access to them.
Imagine this strong access control feature is adopted to your other files like music, photos, videos…and you can access them from desktop, iPhone, Android. Files are synced with cloud. ACL is managed easily using global identities like email address, WebFinger, OpenID. Isn’t it nice?
This is what we call: Web OS.
Summary
Some people say Google is behind Facebook, because Google doesn’t own SNS. But it’s just about application platform. Google is building something better than that, slowly but surely, as you can see on Google Docs Storage: web OS platform. In the future, Chrome OS will take advantage of this, their concept will see its completion. Their layer is lower than Facebook’s.
Someday, Facebook will notice, that they are just playing on Google’s palm top.
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