According to the Wall Street Journal, Google will soon be launching such a service, called Drive, in order to likely compete with existing services like Dropbox, Microsoft Cloud, and Apple’s iCloud. As you can expect, users will be able to upload files to the cloud service and then access them from any Internet-enabled device.

That Google would just now be launching a cloud service after several of its competitors have already entered the market is peculiar and yet the decision seems ceremonial rather than functional. For years now, Google has been in the business of cloud storage by allowing users to upload and access files through several of their services. Since 2007, Google Docs has been allowing users to upload documents that can later be accessed, edited, and download from any Internet-enabled device. Additionally, Picasa has been Google’s online image hosting site since 2004 and last year Google launched an online music-streaming service, Google Music.

So… what is there really to gain from a Google-brand cloud storage service?

This may not be widely known, but Google already has a cloud storage service simply titled Google Cloud Storage. The service, however, is only for developers who want “direct access to Google’s scalable storage and networking infrastructure as well as powerful authentication and data sharing mechanisms.” However, users have to access the service through REST API, Google Storage Manager, or GSUtil. In other words, users need some hefty computer skills to use this service, and even then it’s not for casual users.

A cloud storage service more readily decipherable and usable for the general public would be a good idea… if Google didn’t already offer several services that probably accomodate users’ general needs. Maybe Drive will look to consolidate the storage needs of users and will thus act solely as a space to store files as opposed to services like Docs and Picasa that promote the sharing of files. Then again, a cloud storage service that seemingly duplicates the purposes of existing Google Apps could prematurely cause Drive to join Buzz and Wave in Google’s been of rejected apps.

And then – you knew it would come to this – there’s the whole issue of Google’s new Privacy Policy. How willing are people going to be to use Google Drive knowing that users’ information would be shared across Google platforms, not to mention with third party Google partners as well? People are already unhappy with the change and it’s uncertain whether their ready to trust Google with even more personal information.

Given all of this, any of you readers have some first impressions you’d like to share? Would you give Google Drive a try or are you reluctant to use more of their services given the impending change to the Privacy Policy? Or, is this destined to be Google’s next Buzz or Wave? Give us your thoughts below.

The study focused on the offline sales impact of online reviews for restaurants, hotels, travel, legal, medical, automotive and home services. About one out of every four Internet users (24 percent) said they used online reviews before paying for a service delivered offline. Out of those that referenced an online review, 41 percent of restaurant reviewers went on to visit a restaurant, while 40 percent of hotel reviewers stayed at a hotel.

Over three-quarters of review users in almost every category reported that the review had a major impact on their purchase with hotels ranking highest (87 percent). Ninety-seven percent of those who said they made a purchase based on an online review said the review was accurate. Review users reported that reviews written by other consumers had more of an influence than those written by professionals.

"This study underscores the importance of providing not just good, but excellent, service if a business hopes to generate positive consumer reviews which will result in greater sales," said Brian Jurutka, senior director, comScore Marketing Solutions.

Sixty percent of retailers will use free shipping upgrades, 53 percent will offer discounted shipping and 41 percent will offer free shipping without conditions to increase sales. Consumers like free shipping promotions and 61 percent of online shoppers said that free shipping without conditions is one of the promotions they would likely consider this holiday season.

"Free shipping offers drive online sales more than any other promotion, which is why they remain popular with retailers," said Scott Silverman, Executive Director of Shop.org.

"Unfortunately, free shipping is not free for retailers. Merchants can minimize the financial impact of these promotions by carefully analyzing the conditions required for their customers to receive free shipping."

Along with offering free shipping promotions, retailers will use a number of other marketing tactics to drive sales. Sixty-three percent of retailers will offer online-only sales this year, up from 59 percent two years ago. Thirty-five percent of companies will offer early shopper discounts, 37 percent repeat buyer discounts and 55 percent "refer a friend" promotions.

Customer’s main reasons for shopping online rather than in stores is the ability to shop at any time of day (58%), not wanting to deal with crowds (43%), and the convenience of shopping online (38%). Shoppers also said they like comparing prices online (36%) and that items are usually easier to find online than in stores (29%).

"As consumers become more comfortable with the web as a shopping resource and sales channel, they are naturally spending more of their holiday budget online," said Helen Malani, Shopzilla’s Chief Shopping Expert. "If consumers continue to have a satisfying experience online, the channel will continue to grow for many holiday seasons to come."

"While vertical search is still in its infancy, the integration of vertical results through Google Universal and Ask 3D are allowing sites to draw more and more visitors from specialty indexes. One of the vertical search indexed that is becoming more and more popular is imagine search. Unfortunately, many small businesses are overlooking traffic opportunities by not optimizing the images on their sites.

You’ll note there are three images from the Google image database showing up at the top of the listings. Since I’m hunting for ideas for my son’s first birthday cake, I’m far more likely to click on images than on the standard text results. In fact, I’d wager there are quite a few keyword phrases that are likely to send a fair amount of image search traffic."

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MySpace And Facebook Visitors Drive Time Spent

In August, teens who visited both sites spent on average 20 percent more time on MySpace than those who just visited a single site. Facebook saw an even greater benefit in time spent from dual visitors, who spent an average 26 percent longer at the site than exclusive Facebook visitors.

"Teens who enjoy social media are intensive users and highly engaged. They are venturing onto multiple networks to experience new features and broaden their connections," said Jason Lee, media analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings.

"This demographic is typically drawn to what’s new, and since they are growing up online, they are not afraid of learning the latest Web technologies."

Since Facebook opened registration to the public last year, the site has seen triple digit traffic growth, increasing 117 percent from 8.9 million unique visitors in August 2006 to 19.2 million unique visitors in August 2007. The growth rate for visitors 12-17 has been even higher, increasing 122 percent year over year. The majority of these new Facebook visitors are not new to social networking says Nielsen, more than 80 percent of Facebook visitors in August also went to MySpace.

"MySpace introduced a lot of people, especially young people, to social networking, and that forum continues to be overwhelmingly popular," said Lee.

"But Facebook’s innovative features, many born out of partnerships with third party developers, are driving user growth. Teens continue to interact with friends on MySpace, but have not hesitated to follow their peers to the latest social networking brand. At this point, each site has a unique offering, and teens are happily visiting both."

SES: Let The Domain Drive

(Our on-scene WebProNews staff has passed along this latest news from SES San Jose 2007. If you can’t be there, you need to be here with WebProNews this week, for videos and reports.)

The Domaining & Address-Bar Driven Traffic session arrived in the wake of a couple of massive domain-oriented deals over the summer months.

Business.com sold for an eye-popping $350 million, making Answers.com’s Dictionary.com buy for $100 million look pedestrian.

Monte Cahn of Moniker said the whole domain market has been healthy, with 10.7 million domains registered just in the first quarter of 2007.

Entrepreneurs will want to keep some of the points made today in mind when building or rebuilding their online identities. Everything starts with the domain name. A natural, generic brand can lead to heavy search volume, and that equals mindshare with the prospective audience.

Go for clean, concise, and descriptive domains when building a portfolio. Revenue generating opportunities exist for CPC, CPA, CPM, or direct-traffic deals. The latter will want to choose from the most relevant domains, which makes Cahn’s suggestions important.

Jon Lisbin of Point It acknowledged a ‘dark side’ to domaining. He mentioned click fraud, cyber- and typo-squatting, and domain kiting or tasting as problems.

Andrew Beckman offered an interesting point about competition for traffic. Secondary search engines have been buying domains as a way to find quality traffic for their advertisers, as they strive to thrive in a Google dominated ad market.

In some ways, domaining provides a look at the future. Sean Moriarty of Yahoo Search Marketing said parked domains have been evolving, and becoming full-fledged Internet sites.

The company says that the increase in ticket sales can be attributed to the release of summer blockbusters in May.

MovieTickets.com combined May and June sales were up 41 percent and the overall box office was up 2.4 percent in the same period.

"Clearly online movie ticketing has become an integral part of consumers’ lifestyles. Planning ahead and committing to the in-theater experience has gone from a ‘want’ to a ‘need’ in many parts of the country," said Joel Cohen Executive Vice President and General Manager MovieTickets.com.

"And while e- commerce proliferation is a factor in our striking sales growth, we know that moviegoers are responding more and more to studio marketing campaigns to not only reserve their ticket for a must-see opening weekend film, but for all of their movie ticket buying."

The site has also seen a 150 percent increase in registered users since 2005. MovieTickets.com believes their sales will continue to do well going into the latter half of 2007, mainly due to blockbuster film releases such as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" which saw moviegoers buying advanced tickets in May, two months before its release.

Actually, Live Drive is more properly called Windows Live Folders, but it’s nonetheless entered beta testing.  This “will provide customers with 500 megabytes of online storage at no charge,” according to a statement from Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Live Experience Program Management.

And, yeah, I know 500 megs isn’t much – especially compared to what some of Microsoft’s competitors have made available (see this AP article for details) – but Jones says, “We see this limited managed beta in the United States right now as just a starting point for us, and we’ll begin collecting input from beta users during the testing process, which will be useful when developing future versions of the service.”

No other details about this particular service were forthcoming, but Microsoft took the opportunity to announce a few other things, including the introduction into beta of Windows Live Photo Gallery.  This will be “a new version of the photo application found on Microsoft’s two most recent operating systems, Windows XP and Windows Vista,” explains Reuters.  “It simplifies how people can share photos on their Windows Live Spaces site, Microsoft’s social networking platform.”

So, Gdrive isn’t here yet, and Live Drive isn’t all that impressive, but we’re getting there, folks.  If Jones and Microsoft are to be believed about “refining, adding and connecting products,” then we’re getting there.

The survey found that faster than anticipated growth will lead to increased capital spending in the second half of this year, as service providers converge their wireless and wireline networks and launch advanced video services.

Over 54 percent of telecommunications professionals say mobile video is driving growth now or will within one year. Additionally 78 percent say that IPTV will drive growth within three years.

Nearly all respondents (96%) believe service providers will increase infrastructure spending in the second half of 2007. Fifty-one percent see the convergence of wireless and wireline networks taking place within two years.

"The survey confirms that users are driving the release of new video services such as mobile video and IPTV, and service providers will invest to meet that demand," said Steve McCarthy, Tellabs executive vice president, global sales and service.

"Tellabs solutions enable service providers to rapidly gear up for demand and to meet users’ high expectations for video services."

The survey was from 678 telecom professionals and tracked views on emerging market trends, industry outlook and convergence issues.

Portable PCs are the reason for the international market growth. Shipments are estimated to almost double to 106.1 million in 2009 from the 56.5 million shipped in 2006.

"The rate of portable PC adoption continues at a surprising pace and is a great sign of market strength," said Loren Loverde of IDC. "However, slow desktop demand and a conservative outlook for commercial upgrades reinforce our view that future replacements and Vista adoption will be spread over several years and not concentrated in 2008 and 2009."

 Bob O’Donnell of IDC said, "Despite solid growth in portable PC shipments, the slump in the commercial desktop market continues, dragging down the overall US PC market. We expect portable PC shipments to maintain double digit growth rates for the next few years, as demand for mobility continues to shift new buyers from desktops to notebooks."