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Google users can boost their available storage for Gmail and Picasa Web Albums to as much as 250GB for an annual fee.

Google Starts Shared Storage Service

Hours after Microsoft opened its Windows Live SkyDrive online storage product beta to all comers, Google followed up with the announcement of its Shared Storage service.

Unlike SkyDrive, Google Shared Storage orients toward expanding the capacity for the Gmail and Picasa Web Album services. The service doles out storage to the product that needs it under someone's Google account.

Google's Ryan Aquino posted some basics about the service at the official Google blog. He noted that the entry level price of $20 per year for 6GB of storage was $5 less than what had previously been charged for extra Picasa Web Album storage.

Gmail currently offers about 2.8GB of free storage, a figure that has been gradually increasing over time. Picasa's free storage tops out at 1GB, a figure that an active photographer with lots of high-resolution images can fill pretty fast.

Storage purchased under Google's plan will be used by whichever service needs it. The storage can't be allocated to just one service, though it's easy enough to open a new Google account, activate Gmail or Picasa Web Albums, and purchase storage to be used only by that service.