Google announced on Monday it will unify all of its cloud data services - from Google Drive to Gmail to Google+ - under one 15GB roof. Previously, Google offered users 10GB free for its Gmail service and 5GB free for Drive and Google+ Photos.
The change will make managing data between each services all the more easier, letting users decide where they use their data among Google services. It also makes Google officially the data-host with the most free online storage.
"With this new combined storage space, you won't have to worry about how much you're storing and where," Clay Bavor, Google's director of product management wrote in a statement. "For example, maybe you're a heavy Gmail user but light on photos, or perhaps you were bumping up against your Drive storage limit but were only using 2 GB in Gmail. Now it doesn't matter, because you can use your storage the way you want."
The change in storage will roll out over the next couple of weeks. Users will be able to manage their storage through Google's Google Drive storage page.
Users needing more than 15GB of storage can also upgrade their storage limits for a low price: Google is offering 100GB on Google Drive for $5 a month and 200GB for $10 a month, half of what Dropbox offers for similar storage options.
But how does Google's new unified cloud storage stack up against the competition?
Pretty well, in fact.
Microsoft's SkyDrive currently offers new users 7GB of free storage for photos and documents and unlimited email storage. Apple gives iCloud users 5GB of free storage to play with while Dropbox offers users two free gigabytes to use as they see fit.
Microsoft and Apple, however, have both grandfathered early cloud storage users. Microsoft let early adopters of SkyDrive keep 25GB of free storage before cutting it down to 7GB. Apple, by contrast, gave MobileMe subscribers 20GB of free iCloud storage for a year after the company shut down MobileMe in 2012.
Google Apps customers will also be getting 30GB shared storage, and are no longer limited to 25GB for their Gmail accounts.
