Google starts selling online storage

GOOGLE has started selling additional storage capacity online, a service initially aimed at users with large multimedia storage requirements for photos, music and video.

But as the company pushes its web-based productivity services Docs & Spreadsheets into the small business markets,

Google announced it would charge US$20 (A$23.60) for 6GB of additional storage, US$75 for 25GB, US$250 for 100GB and US$500 for 250GB.

The company said the additional storage could be used across different Google products, from its Gmail email service to its Picasa photo sharing service.

Picasa Web Albums software quality assurance engineer Ryan Aquino said on the official Google blog the additional storage service would soon be extended Docs & Spreadsheets.

“The Picasa team is pleased to tell you that in a few hours we'll be rolling out extra storage that you can purchase to use across several Google products (today, Picasa Web Albums and Gmail; soon, other applications like Google Docs & Spreadsheets),” Mr Aquino wrote on the Google blog.

“That will help make storage really useful, like letting you upload lots of full resolution images to Picasa Web Albums. When you reach the limit of free storage (i.e., 1GB for Picasa Web Albums, 2.8GB for Gmail), consider this your overflow solution,” Mr Aquino wrote.

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Google loses battle for German Gmail

A DAVID and Goliath story with a technology flavour has played out in a Hamburg court, with search giant Google losing a legal battle to win the right to use the brand "Gmail" for its online mail service in Germany.

A regional court in the northern city of Hamburg upheld a claim by a local businessman who said he had been using the name “G-Mail” for an electronic mail service he had been developing since 2000 – years before Google launched its hugely popular global mail service.

The court said Google may not use the Gmail brand in Germany. Google had sued the entrepreneur in an effort to have him stop using the name.

It is not yet clear whether Google will appeal the decision, which culminated a three year legal battle. The entrepreneur also has suits pending against him in Switzerland, Portugal and Spain.

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