GigaOM

Om,

I’m curious as to how well people will accept storing their data somewhere else besides their own hard drives. While the data is undoubtably safer from hardware failures in a large server farm, I doubt it is more secure.

We’ve already seen the US Gov’t go after search records of people, going after actual stored data online isn’t a far stretch.

If any company manages to succeed it will be the one that establishes the greatest level of trust, not the best service.

We’ve already seen the US Gov’t go after search records of people, going after actual stored data online isn’t a far stretch. Only weak souls like Microsoft and Yahoo give the data, while stronger souls who have built their online business refuse to and challenge court orders. So choice is clear as to where you should store - Safety, Security, Reliability, Accessibility only by Google.

I insist on using a Web hosting services with Unix-based servers. After all the Windows security problems in the last two years, and in the wake of the failure of the ill-conceived .Net and Passport initiatives, does Microsoft really believe that people will trust their data with the company?

The smaller players in this market will be in big trouble very soon since they just can’t match the huge investments needed to build the vast server farms. Also agree that MS will have much more trouble selling this to the end user than Google because of thier tarnished reputation.

I guess I’m in a cynical mood today, but I’m personally getting sick of “Live” this… “Live” that. Can’t they get a little more creative. Maybe they’re just trying to convince people they aren’t “Dead” on the internet.

While I’m not a MSFT fan, it’s great to see them validating one of the key building blocks to always on computing. Sadly it will lamost certinaly spell the demise of the less established vendors.

OM Wrote
“I have to wonder what impact it will have on dozens of online storage companies that are popping up all over the place?”

Depend on what service LiveDrive does, FolderShare (bought by MS) is already is kind of LiveDrive but dont affect market so much.

While you may think Microsoft has a tarnished reputation, most do not. Average users use AOL and shop at QVC and Walmart. The masses don’t behave like the small percentage of people who fret over every little tech news story. Those people (the bulk) will be happy to have Microsoft back up their data for free.

Which of the start-ups allow true integration into Windows? As in being able to map a drive (say, my w: drive) to my online storage?

Is that available now?

I don’t think I’ll be posting my tax information to anything web-based whether it is run by Microsoft or Google. That’s just plain silly.

Will this whole Windows Live thing really work? I’m really skeptical of the quality and efficiency of Microsoft. They make things slow (Vista) and they make things bad (Windows in general). Google may not produce the best services but at least they roll out them pretty quickly and customer loyalty results. Google IPO-ed less than 2 years ago. Look at the growth in products and services and market share it has accumulated in just these 2 short years. Microsoft has to learn that it no longer owns the software market and can do everything at its own pace.

I’ve been signed up with Streamload (25GB Free) for quite some time now. Surprisingly I’ve been using it a lot less than I had originally thought.