New p2p service uses Gmail storage

By Steve Malone

Posted on 29 Nov 2005 at 10:32

Ever wondered what you might do with the 2GB storage provided by Google's Gmail service? A Dutch student Robbie Groenewoudt has come up with a novel solution. His new service, known as G2G Exchange combines the storage capacity of Gmail with p2p technology to create a new file-sharing service.

The new service requires that a user reveals some login information, so it is not something that you would want to use for a personal email service. Groenewoudt suggests that users open a new Gmail account especially for the purposes of running the service.

The service is somewhat clunky. To upload a file, a user has to send themselves a email with the file attached. Google's 20Mb file attachment limit will probably prevent the swapping of movies although most pieces of music would probably transfer quite happily. G2G Exchange then uses Gmail's labels which act as pseudo directories, and indexes each registered account once every 24 hours for distribution among the members, so that the availability of content is not the instant access that file sharers are used to. However, it does have the advantage of using Google's network to download rather than other users' bandwidth.

Whilst the upload process is cumbersome at present - the service is only claimed to be in beta format at the moment - it is possible to use applications like Gmail Drive to bulk upload content via the Google Gmail API.

Google's reaction to this use of its email service is not known although it is likely to be monitoring the situation carefully. Doubtless the Recording Industry Association of America is keeping an even closer eye on developments. If widespread piracy starts to happen the RIAA will doubtless insist Google step in to block the use of its network possibly by limiting the use of Gmail Drive.