TC News: GDrive Evidence Surfaces, Use GPay on Your Phone to Pay for Stuff, “Who’s Afraid of Google?”

by Bob Caswell

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Google Logo TechConsumer News is a feature we started out of a hobby of tracking the latest happenings within the consumer related technology sphere. The goal is to provide a concise, compiled overview of the most intriguing stories from the last few days. Today’s news roundup focuses on Google. Feel free to give us feedback or send us tips.

Here’s the latest in TechConsumer [Google] news:

Google Blogoscoped stumbled upon evidence which suggests the rumored GDrive (Google online storage) will be made available publicly, likely as part of Google Apps. Apparently, Google Apps accounts allow you to “change the query string parameter on the page where you can disable services.” The important part is that by doing this, the option to disable GDrive is given (even though it was never enabled). See the screenshot below:

GDrive

Google submitted a patent application filing named Text Message Payment on Friday. The patent explains how “GPay” can be used to make payment via text messages. An example of how this works is in scenarios where you would pay for items in vending machines or at retailers. If rumors of the GPhone come true, then expect to see GPay as a default service for the GPhone. See the screenshot below:

Gpay

The Economist (subscription required) has joined the ranks of those questioning Google’s antics, asking some of the same questions TechConsumer’s Tom asked in his article entitled, Is anyone else nervous about Google? The Economist compares Google to a bank: “Just as financial institutions grew to become repositories of people’s money, and thus guardians of private information about their finances, Google is now turning into a custodian of a far wider and more intimate range of information about individuals… [Google] will be the one to test the limits of what society can tolerate.”

Sphere It