Once installed, it places a Drive icon in the upper right-hand corner of your browser, and whenever you’re viewing a file, you can simply click it to save it to Drive. It also adds such an option to the right click menu.

It works with images, images of entire pages, HTML source code and web archives (.mht).

“After you save using the extension, you’ll see options to immediately open the file in Drive, rename it, or view it in your Drive list, where you can do things like add it to a folder or share it with others,” says product manager Josh Hudgins.

“There are also a few new ways to work with images you’re already storing in Drive,” he adds. “You can now zoom by scrolling or using the new ‘fit to page’ and 100% buttons. And if you have something to say about a specific part of an image, you can select a region and add a comment to it.”

Google clearly wants to push people more and more into the cloud (specifically, Google’s cloud), and more Drive integration into its other products is a good way to do this. They also recently launched some much needed Drive integration for Gmail.

The addition of Drive search results to Google search has proven extremely helpful in my experience. I think once this leaves the limited phase, people are going to love the feature.

As you are probably aware, Google Drive is the company’s answer to DropBox and all the other digital file lockers out there. While most just want to store their own content for personal use, you might also use the service to share files with others. Using the API, you can download a file without authentication if it has been shared publicly. All you have to do is send a GET request for the file metadata and look for the “webContentLink” to find the file.

When setting permissions via the Drive API, Google notes that you can choose “owner,” “writer,” “reader” and “commenter” for the role paramater. Strangely enough, you actually can’t select commenter for the role paramater. To fix this, you have to grant the user the role of reader and then list “commenter” under “additionalRoles.”

While you can restrict the list of files that are returned by the Drive API, you might want to sometimes return the entire folder via the root. To do this, you just have to submit a simple search query with “root” attached to the end.

Another simple tip is to check out the “About Feed” of the Drive API. In here, you can find all sorts of information including the quota that’s left in a User’s account. The quota is listed in bytes so have fun counting all the bytes that are in the free 5GB of data that’s offered to every user.

One of the better functions of Drive, and what sets it apart from the competition, is that it can be used to open files with Chrome apps. Not all Chrome apps can take advantage of Drive though and it might not be readily apparent on the app’s store page. To find out if an app can open a file via Drive, just retrieve the “Apps feed” and look for one of the following elements: “primaryMimeTypes, secondaryMimeTypes, primaryFileExtensions, and secondaryFileExtensions.”

To learn more, check out Google’s developer resources for the Drive API. You’ll be building Drive apps with the best of them in no time.

Google Drive is already off to a great start today with 18 apps that support the new cloud storage platform. These aren’t Google apps either. The company lined up multiple partners to have Google Drive apps ready one day one to display the versatility of the platform.

This isn’t some test run to see how Drive works with apps either. The Google Drive SDK is available to everyone right now. It’s an open platform and with 10GB of free storage available to everyone, people are going to get some good use out of it.

A lot of the apps that support Google Drive right now are the kind of things you would expect including design and document sharing apps. Imaging being able to edit video or pictures all from within the cloud. That’s the idea behind Google Drive. It’s similar to the Adobe Creative Cloud that’s launching with CS6 that allows users to take advantage of all of the software within the CS6 line of products from within the cloud. Sounds pretty awesome, but Google has the advantage of 10GB free storage and free apps on the Chrome Web store that can replicate most of the functions of popular programs like Photoshop.

If the 18 launch apps and the SDK already being made available didn’t tip you off, Google wants people to use Drive. This is a major new service for them and they want developers to make the most of it. That’s why the developer documentation is available right now so you can start building. Google will also be hosting a Hangout this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. PDT/1:30 p.m. EST to answer any questions you might have.

Google Drive is a bold new step for the company. Apps and the SDK are both positive first signs that Google Drive will be a great tool for developers as well.

This suggests that Google Drive will integrate even more with Gmail – The blog Google Operating System speculates users might “say goodbye [to] email attachments and hello to real time collaboration. Drag anything shared with you to My Drive for easy access.” This would make Google Drive an important upgrade to Google Docs, detaching its present online storage service, and making it more useful by adding space, syncing apps and third party integration.

The Wall Street Journal recently mentioned that Google Drive “is expected to launch in the coming weeks or months and will be free for most consumers and businesses. Google will charge a fee to those who want to store a large amount of files.”

Drive will be in competition with Dropbox, Microsoft’s Skydrive and Apple’s iCloud, and will replace its existing Google Cloud Storage.

Interestingly, SafeGov has recently questioned the general security of Google’s cloud device.

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.