Google Gdrive Client Leaked
I've been able to get hold of Google's internal Gdrive client, named "Platypus"* (information on the project leaked a while ago). Please note that Gdrive, from what it looks like, is not a product for general release, but a way for Google employees to store and share files.
Context & Ripple Effects
In July 2006, Geekness reported Google was internally testing an online storage service under the codename Platypus. With this leak, the rumor acquires an artifact: an actual client binary, obtained by Google Blogoscoped, showing Gdrive as a working tool rather than speculation.
First-order effects
- The leak reframes Gdrive's purpose: per the reporting, it is an internal employee file storage and sharing tool, not a product slated for general release — which tempers the consumer-launch expectations built up since July.
Second-order effects
- Google shipped its hosted applications suite for custom domains in August 2006, starting with email and talk and followed by word processing and spreadsheets; a working internal storage layer strengthens the case that hosted file storage is the next component of that bundle.
Third-order effects
- If Google follows the same path it took with mail and office apps — running internal infrastructure first, then exposing it to outside domains — file storage shifts from the desktop to the hosted-services model, with Google's own tooling as the proving ground.
The trend: Google's application stack is expanding from communication and document tools toward hosted file storage, with internal-tooling leaks filling the disclosure gap left by the company's silence on unreleased products.