Gmail is really famous among users of all the email clients available on the web. Initially getting popular because of it’s huge storage space and it’s reliability, it has now evolved to a rather simple but cool and extensible all inclusive interface that we have all got used to. As far as storage space is concerned several other email providers are competing, but still Google doesn’t stop and keeps on increasing the storage space provided while also allowing users to buy even more online storage space. So why not use this online storage space for things other than email only, and use it externally from a script or from our computer.
The external use of Google Storage Space is not a new idea and there are several different approaches and uses of that space. Here we will present you with the best tools, so far, that let you use your Gmail account space as your external storage location. You will be able to download (or should I say copy) attachments from your Gmail account to your computer just as you would do from a drive on your computer. You can also use this space to upload content directly from your computer and save it online in your Gmail account. Or even setup a gallery based on the photos stored in your Gmail and listen to music based on the media files stored .
1. GmailFS
GmailFS or Gmail File System is a virtual mountable file system developed by Richard Jones which uses your Gmail account as its storage medium. Gmail Filesystem is a Python application and uses the FUSE userland filesystem infrastructure to help provide the filesystem, and libgmail to communicate with Gmail. The speed of this filesystem is limited by the speed of the user’s Internet connection, and the upload/download speed of the Gmail server. Files can be any size, and are stored as (segmented) attachments.
2. GMail Drive
GMail Drive is third party addon for Windows that lets you use your Gmail account space as an extra drive on your computer. It allows a user to access a virtual drive stored in a Gmail e-mail account by causing the contents of the Gmail account to appear as a new network share on the user’s workstation. In order to use this add-on, the user needs a Gmail e-mail account. The add-on enables the user to use the standard Windows desktop file copy and paste commands to transfer files to and from the Gmail account as if it was a drive on the user’s computer.
3. GSpace
GSpace is a firefox extension that turns your 3GB of your Gmail account into free online storage. With Gspace you can manage unlimited Gmail accounts to store all type of files within its simple, user friendly interface. You can also listen your favourite stored music directly from your Gspace, view your collections of pictures and manage your Gdrive files as well.
4. G-Share
G-Share is a PHP script that allows you to share your gmail attachments in a webpage, it is a download center with files stored in your Gmail account. You need a MySQL database to store data such as download counters, visitors, etc
PhpGmailDrive, also known as PGD, is an open source set of scripts written in PHP to share Gmail file attachments with others on the web. PGD is based on GmailFS, a Gmail attachment file system that uses email subjects for organization. It automatically logins to Gmail and fetch available file list and allow others to download them. It could be included in any HTML page.
6.Roamdrive
RoamDrive simplifies the process of using your Web-based email to store files. You can now make use of the extra storage in your inbox to store your favorite documents, music, photos, and videos. What’s great is that not only does it tie into your existing e-mail account but you’re also able to access your files from anywhere you can access the Internet. Currently supports Gmail and Hotmail/MSN with plans to support Yahoo in the future.
7.Goollery
Taking the whole idea a step further, Goollery is a GMail based photo gallery. You can upload pictures from a website interface, create subgoolleries and add text. The pictures will automatically be stored in your gmail accout. Still this is just a proof on concept!
8. Gallina
This was an awesome idea to allow you to blog via GMail. Who needs an SQL database when you can save your posts to GMail? Featuring GMail messages as “entries” (the message star is the publish status), Replies to conversations as the “entry comments”, libgmailer (gmail-lite project) to connect to GMail, XML/XSLT support, jpeg/png attachments support, comments from the web and it is free GPL software.
Unfortunately it seems it is no longer available.
9. GmailRSS
GMail as an RSS reader is a very good option and GMailRSS is a tool for doing exactly that. GMail stores all state on the server, it doesn’t matter where you login from to get your RSS fix! You can read a couple of feeds at work, a couple at home from a different machine etc. and everything is synchronized. Also GMail’s infinite archiving capability effectively creates a personal news archive for everyone, easily searchable and trackable by simply marking or labelling. Of course there is always the possibility of using Google Reader
10. GmailTODO
Gmail Todo is another todo application that uses the python libgmail to store all todo’s in a todo label on gmail. This way your todo list is simple and always available.
11. GMailSTORE
GMailStore can simply allow you to Save any file (No limitation of file extention name or size) to your gmail account. Youu can operate on multi-gmail-account simultaneously, Share your files by “forward” action with your friends. Currently supports 3 languages including English, Simplied Chinese and Traditional Chinese, but it can be easily translated into other languages.
12. Vombato Mail drive
Vombato Mail Drive will allow you to store your favorite files with music, video, photos and data files on your Email account. It is software to create a free online storage on any of your POP3 Email account anywhere on the Web. You can always get access to your important files via the Internet. And the great news is that you can encrypt all files stored on your email account. Vombato Mail Drive lets you store files on your Email account as if on additional hard drive. Vombato maintains directory tree structure as a normal filesystem.
13. Send To GMail
Send to Gmail offers users an opportunity to quickly and easily save important documents and utilize Gmail’s enormous capacity for storing info. The program was a breeze to use and even managed to exceed our expectations with its added features. While not much to look at, Send to Gmail’s interface is enhanced by its simplicity. Sending a document or entire file to your Gmail account was impressively easy. After we found the item we wished to back up, we simply right-clicked it and selected the Send to Gmail option and the item was shipped to our e-mail account in a matter of seconds. Even more impressive than this was the program’s unexpected versatility.
14. Poperti (formerly GookBox)
Poperti is a desktop POP3 client providing enriched user experience for categorised messages in your inbox. Currently Poperti supports messages in music category. For music messages enriched user experience would mean being able to list, select and play all your music messages. It shows you a music player console and also provides a playlist. You can play your music right off your inbox! In the future we have plans for various useful categories, one such category is photos. Still, you can always play MP3/WMA files right from your Gmail account with Gmail’s flash MP3 player. Still, it’s a good way to centralise all your music in your email, access it from anywhere you have a broadband connection.
And as Gmail utilization and stored content rises, even more new solutions appear, such as the Gmail Backup tool . What would you think is next? Have you heard of any other alternative uses of gmail?
