Exhibit A: amd.streamload.com. It offers several packages, but the free package offers 25GB of storage space, and fairly reasonable download limits (that is, you can store 25GB, but you can only download 1GB a month).
Exhibit B: GDrive speculation (more speculation), and the success of just about everything Google has ever released.
The AMD/Streamload product is a no-brainer — I signed up right away. Even if I don’t need it right now, the ability to store 25GB of stuff online is just too good to pass up.
So, who wants to place odds on how long it will take for Google to enter this space and blow them away? The idea seems (to me) to fit right in with Google’s mission and product lines. As noted above, it’s even been speculated about quite heavily, and quite recently. I’m reminded of one of Paul Graham’s comments on the Kiko affair:
The best solution for most startup founders would probably be to stay out of Google’s way.
I’m a pragmatist, in most things. I fully expect Google to come out with something in this space, I’m pretty certain it will be better, and I expect to use it. Sorry, AMD.
