Insync

TL;DR: Despite Google Drive's launch, Insync is continuing as a company and product and focusing on Google Docs power and business users.

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If you are an average consumer, Google Drive will likely be enough and we encourage you to use it. But if you are a power or business user, Insync is likely more your cup of tea.

Here are some things you can do with Insync that you cannot do with Google Drive:

• Google Docs in your "drive" -- offline GDocs editing
• @gmail.com, @company.com, @family.com -- multiple Google account sync support
• Who edited word.doc? -- recent changes
• Change your Google Drive directory easily -- just click Insync Preferences
• Share recipients deletion of local files don't affect the share owner (i.e. if John, a sharee, deletes word.doc, Mary, the owner, would still have local access to word.doc)
• Local folder and file right-click (contextual menu) support for easy sharing
• No browser required when sharing (standalone app for Insync version 1.0+)

What are your next steps?

Insync for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone is coming soon with Insync for iPad and Android tablet to follow.

Insync for mobile, will include "power" features like "Send as Attachment", streaming music and videos, offline folders and files, export to SD Card (Android + BlackBerry), saving email attachments to Google Docs, etc.

We are also working on version 1.0 of Insync for Mac and Windows that adds features like selective syncing, encrypted sync, sync any folder, etc. (not all in one version :)

And yes, we are supporting Linux, despite its long delay thus far.

insynchq.com has been updated to reflect our focus.

According to our sources, Google has bought startup Insync and instead of delaying GDrive's launch again, it is launching GDrive as Insync today.

Google paid in the 10 figures we hear as Google gears up for war with Dropbox, iCloud and Skydrive. If that sounds like a lot of money, it's really not. Dropbox was last valued at 11 figures and If there was ever a company to give Dropbox a fight, it would be Google.

Prior rumors had mentioned the possibility of a launch near mid-April so this is a bit of a surprise.

Insync sports 5GB of free storage, multiple account support and even an Android app. 

Is it a Dropbox killer?

"No doubt," said Mike Arrington, founder of Techcrunch and Crunchfund, who's now crapping in his pants about his investment in Bitcasa.

He continued, "2GB vs. 5GB free? Fuggetaboutit!". (Note: the 2GB refers to the amount of free Dropbox storage).

"I post on the forums or on twitter or send them an email and I don't know how they do it but they respond in 5 minutes! Every time!," said Joe P., an early adopter from Mississippi.

Let's hope Insync and Google support remain separate.

I haven't actually installed GDrive yet because I wanted to rush this guest post/breaking news on Insync's blog itself.

I will post a longer review once I get all the link love for breaking the biggest story of tech in 2012 so far.

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Update 1: From our anonymous source: "Houston, we have a problem."

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This post was guest written by Aike MrRington, founder of Crunchtech, a tech blog focused on gaining traffic.

Insync disclaimer: His opinion is his alone.

15 months in closed beta later...Insync is live!

Insync combines...

• cheap Google Docs storage
• powerful sharing and collaboration
• integrated functionality

Cheap storage

GDocs storage is $0.25 per GB/year while Dropbox charges $2.00 per GB/year. 

Google's storage tiers:

• 20GB at $5/year
• 80GB at $20/year
• 200GB at $50/year
• 400GB at $100/year
• up to 16TB

Dropbox's storage tiers:

• 50GB at $100/year
• 100GB at $200/year

Buying storage from Google becomes a no-brainer.

Awesome sharing

It's free and there is no registration - just use your Google account.

https://insynchq.com

We have been heads down since our private beta was released on September of 2010, gathering feedback, iterating, releasing to our users and doing it all over again until we had product/market fit.

What took so long?

Building a cross-platform syncing solution that "just works" is massively difficult. The permutations on the desktop alone are migraine-inducing. And testing becomes an entire beast of its own combining art, science and tears.

But over the last 15 months, we persevered and have recently begun testing Insync 0.9, our soon to be released version to the world.

What makes it unique?

Besides allowing you to utilize Google's cheap storage, Insync allows you to sync files in Google Docs across all your devices, Dropbox-style.

But our unique feature is the support of multiple Google Docs accounts, allowing you access to yourGmail and Google Apps accounts from Finder and Explorer!

We also put an emphasis on sharing and collaboration, which is lacking in today's sync products, specifically:

• Read/write and read-only sharing
• Share recipients don't get charged against their Google storage quota
• Nested sharing 

We don't have an exact date for a public release but it is very soon. However, lucky readers get early access right now (limited invites).

Let us know what you think.

Finally, an alternative to Dropbox worth trying :)

We had no idea, no idea!