Today's the day for Google's unexpected Gmail announcement: free email service, including one gigabyte of storage.

So, on one hand, hard disk vendors should start to court Google: even if they get only 10 million users, they'll need about 100'000 hard drives for data storage, this can be good business!

On the other hand, I'm thinking of creating a virtual filesystem which uses this service to backup my data, by sending it as encrypted blocks of data to myself : juste create about 40 email addresses to get enough space and I'm set!

I've used the online form to request more information, we'll see what comes up!

I've used my spam-protected firstofapril-at-codeconsult.ch address for safety;-)

Update: Matthew and Computerwoche (German) think this is not a joke. others keep their options open. We'll know by tomorrow, for sure!

Update #2: looks this is real after all!

Update #3: we'll probably never know if the date and unusual tone of the announcement were on purpose or not. My guess is that Google has clever and fun people in marketing as well! Jon Udell and Doc Searls have more on this.