Whoops, the Platypus (GDrives codename) got loose at Google apparently on Writely’s website. As you may remember Google recently acquired them.

Writelys index page briefly showed an introduction to GDrive (as illustrated in the screenshot), then linked to pages available to Google employees only on the Google VPN. However it seems that GDrives features are now confirmed:

* Backup. If you lose your computer, grab a new one and reinstall Platypus. Your files will be on your new machine in minutes.
* Sync. Keep all your machines synchronized, even if they run different operating systems.
* VPN-less access. Not at a Google computer? View your files on the web at http://troutboard.com/p.
* Collaborate. Create shared spaces to which multiple Googlers can write.
* Disconnected access. On the plane? VPN broken? All your files are still accessible.
* Publish. All of the files you store on Platypus are automatically accessible from the (corporate) web.
* Share. Other Googlers can mount your Platypus folders and open your files in read-only mode.
* Local IO speeds. Open and save as quickly as you could if you were accessing them from your C: drive.

The feature set is quite impressive, and apparently will support Windows, Mac and Linux as a downloadable application. Box.net better watch out the 500lbs Gorilla is coming.

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