Download: Store your files online with Google Drive

It's no surprise that Google has launched an online storage service to match those from the likes of Dropbox, SpiderOak and Ubuntu One. The unique advantage of Google Drive is that it integrates with Google Docs to give access to your online documents.

Setup was simple and Google Drive creates a folder on your computer to store the synchronised files. If you select the Advanced setup this reveals the folder and lets you selectively sync the folders in your Google Drive account. This also gives the opportunity to sync Google Docs files and to start automatically with Windows.

We were pleased to see that the sync folder is C:\Users\username\Google Drive. Keeping it out of the Documents folder means that it won't disrupt any other online backup services you might be using.

Once installation is finished the Google Drive icon will appear in the notification area to access Drive options.

An ordinary Google account comes with 5GB of storage, which compares well with the alternatives. The cost of extra storage is quite reasonable. The account can be upgraded to 25GB for $2.49 a month or 100GB for $4.99 a month. If you need even more storage there are plans that go all the way up to an eye watering 16TB, with a price tag of $800 a month to match.

There is an iPad app but this can only view files not edit, if you want to edit your documents on an iPad it's best to do so using Safari. It is possible to edit files in the Drive Android App.

Google Drive is also available for Mac, but not for Linux. If you want to share files with a Linux computer, you're better off using one of the alternatives above.

Strangely we couldn't edit our Google Docs offline. Even though they appeared in the Google Drive folder, double-clicking on them launched a browser window that tried to access the Google Docs website. A little research showed that offline editing only works in Google Chrome once a Chrome app has been installed.