Google's New Cloud Service?

The web has been sizzling in recent minutes with rumors and speculation about a new cloud server product apparently soon to be issued by the web giant Google. The timeliness of this comes perfectly amidst the growing popularity of IT cloud computing.

"Google Cloud Picker"

It started with a user question posted earlier today on one of Google's help forum threads on Blogger. Apparently a user attempted to upload some file images to their online (apps storage) account provided by Google. The upload was unsuccessful, whereupon the user was presented with a screen labeled "Google Cloud Picker".

TechCrunch journalist Leena Rao reports that Google Cloud Picker "connected somehow to Google Apps, Docs, and Sites, and was presented to users when they tried to insert a file or image into a Google site. When they tried to embed the file, a "Google Cloud Picker" window opened and asked users to log-in to their Google Accounts."

After the first user's posting for some help, another chimed in their response and kindly provided a screen capture of the previously unheard-of Google service. At the time of this writing only seven responses to the user's original question have been provided, and none of them specifically address what "Google Cloud Picker" is.

What's Is It?

In studying the provided image of Google Cloud Picker's top interface screen, we see that the service provides users with centralized access to their other Google-hosted services such as photos, maps, documents, and YouTube videos. As the "picker" name suggests, the new application may provide an object-oriented view of previously uploaded assets, from which the user may "pick" and choose for use with the task at hand.

Up to this point apparently no-one has been able to venture beyond the Google Cloud Picker log on error screen. It seems the product may still be in development, and for all we know it may later pop up under an entirely new brand name.

Some Guessing on the Interface

It's difficult to surmise just what Google Cloud Picker's new interface may look like.

If it's anything like Google's other products, we might expect to see a single sign-on process of the kind bundled with other existing Google services. After signing on, perhaps we may see a mere listing of hotlinks to our other assets hosted on Google. More preferably, we would be able to skip this time intensive navigation to other interfaces, and instead see a more user-friendly and objected-oriented menu of all our files and documents - all on one screen.

Apparently a Mistake

It seems the appearance of the screen - indeed the very notion - of this new service was mistakenly released. In response to Leena Rao's inquiry, Google apparently responded, "Oops... looks like someone pushed some code too quickly. It's not quite ready for prime time yet but stay tuned!"

Just What Is It?

As Google hasn't made a formal release announcement yet, we can only surmise that Google is close to opening the gate to a pedestrian version of the wildly popular enterprise cloud service concept. As it has been with some of their previous product releases, we will most likely see this show up in beta form.

With an unusual name like "Google Cloud Picker", a less tech-prone user may wish to have some explanation as to what this name means, as well as see how its features can help make their online life easier.

Let's wait and see...

Resources:

Meet Cloud Picker, Google's Stealthy New Storage Product - by Leena Rao

Google support forum posting

Some Facts on a New Collaborative Technology: Cloud Computing