Use Google as a free hosting site

December 20, 2011

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 01:03 AM PST

Storage space in computers is a big problem, no matter how large space we have, it always feels less. Although there are many free hosting sites on web, on which you can store your files and data, but this article will tell you how you can use your gmail account as a free file hosting site.

A single account on google/gmail can give you so much free, secure and well managed space. There are many sites which google owns provide you facility to upload/share files online for free, and the best thing is you can access all sites just by login through ur gmail account, and this is the main reason why I prefer to use google for storing my files, i hate to do sign ups on many sites, moreover, to remember the user-names and passwords for every account is a very big deal for me. So if you are like me then you can find this article very useful for you.

For the space Google provides i used two terms- Secure and Well managed. Secure because you can always control that who can see your files and who dont, so you can keep your files private if you want to, also you can share files publically or only with some of friends/relatives. And I used term Managed because on all different sites you can store different kind of files, like on youtube you can upload only videos, on picassa only pictures/videos and on google sites only css/javascripts. Hence you can imagine it as different folder in your system one for only videos, one for photos, one for web etc. etc.

List of Google Sites that you can use as a free hosting site:-

1. Gmail:
From the given list above, i prefer to use gmail mostly to store my data, there are many reasons to do so...

I am very used to gmail and feels it very easy to use. Simply i do mail to myself to upload and store any file in my gmail. You can use gmail to store those data, that you want to keep private or want to share just by email.
Managing files are very easy in gmail. In Same way like your computer, you can create folders in the form of labels in gmail and can store everything separately in different different folders according to your Data. For ex. In my gmail i have labels like study, softwares, ebooks, blog, photos etc.
It gives 7.5 GB Free space, that is too much just for emails.
There is no limitation of file type. If a file is not allowed to attach, you can create a rar or zip file and then upload it.

Note: If you want to share data publicly than you need to look for other options below. And If you are thinking to store photos of size up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos of any size then you should look below for another options, coz these can be uploaded without any size limitations.

2. Google Docs:

If you want to share any file publicly, or with friends by giving them direct download link, then Google docs can be helpful.
Its gonna be 1 year soon, when Google docs turned into a Universal file host, but only some people know about it. On Google docs you can upload not only pdf or doc files, but you can upload files in any format.
Google docs currently provides you 1GB free space.

3. Picasa:

Picasa is a good option if you want to share photos publicly or just by link.
Picasa also gives 1GB free space, but this limitation is only for those pics that are larger than 2048 x 2048 pixels size. If your pics are smaller than this size then their size/space will not count towards your free storage limit. And the best thing is if any time you are out of limitation, then also you can upload pics, but your pics will automatically convert into 2048 x 2048 pixels size image, that is also not bad.
If you are not on Google+ then picture size 2048 x 2048 pixels is not applicable for you, your storage space will count each time you upload a pic having size more than 800 x 800 pixels. So its better to create a google+ account, you can do it simply by login through your gmail.
Do you know you can upload videos also on picasa? Videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage. But Youtube is better option for uploading Videos, see below for details.

4. Youtube:

Youtube is best option if you want to share videos online or just want to store any private video. This is best because you can upload as many videos as you want.
Same like picasa it has 15 minutes limitation, but if you are a verified user, then you can upload a video upto size 20 GB. For verifying your account, you just need to enter your mobile no. for verification.

5. Google sites: