Banking the Data in Online

IHT - NY Times: "If the market does expand, it will be a sweet validation for companies like Xdrive and Streamload, which were ahead of the curve when they offered such services in the late 1990s. But they will have to withstand competition from companies like America Online.

AOL last month began testing a service called 'My Storage,' which allows subscribers to upload 100 megabytes of files to AOL's servers, and access that information from any computer with an Internet connection. The service is similar to that of other data storage offerings. Users simply click and drag files into a dedicated folder. When the computer is connected to the Web, the files are uploaded to AOL.

E-mailing files to oneself is a popular technique for users who wish to back up files, especially with the advent of services like Gmail by Google, which offers one gigabyte of e-mail storage free. But Gmail and other services limit the size of files that can be mailed, thwarting users who want to send themselves digital movies or many MP3 files.

Apple has 500,000 subscribers to its .Mac service, which includes 250 megabytes of Internet storage for $100 a year. Xdrive, which is based in Santa Monica, California, said it had 35,000 subscribers who paid about $10 month for 5 gigabytes of storage. Streamload, which is based in San Diego, has about 20,000 subscribers who pay an average of $10 a month for unlimited storage. Yahoo does not break out the number of subscribers for its service.

Streamload this month began offering 10 gigabytes of storage free, but with strings attached. Users can only download 100 megabytes of data a month, which is enough for about 25 MP3 files."