More interestingly, the email included a link to a feedback survey. I listed the removal and lack of the mac client as a major factor for me not recommending the service, as well as the confusing Google Docs / GDrive integration.

I just logged in to the account to prevent removal and played around again with the Google feature. I unlinked the account, then relinked it again to a new folder I called GDrive.

After a couple of minutes, all my Google Doc files were there, which had never worked before.

I will test updating the docs now, but so far it looks positive.

Note to Syncplicity – You must sort out your Mac client as a matter of urgency. You have a genuine opportunity to lead the market in providing a bridge between the Mac and Google Docs / GDrive that does not involve the command line and multiple commands.

For the more tech-minded, you can get hold of some other tools that make it more configurable.

So off it goes, working its magic in the background.

And then you get an error message and after spending some time investigating it, you find that you have suffered Error 109 which basically means that your Mac cannot mount the drive that is home to your Time Machine.

“No problem, Google must have the answer!” No, sorry, only a wealth of links to forum posts from people in the same boat. Resolutions range from “It just started working” to delicate operations using the command line that are still unlikely to work.

I have gone through two of these, both times the least stressful approach was to wipe the drive and start again. Not ideal, as I would not be able to restore my Mac back to its state as of three months ago, but I can always at least rebuild my Mac from scratch and get it back to how it was yesterday.

Bottom line – do not use Time Machine as your only backup method.

For your important files and folders, just use Dropbox and for complete security, back up your entire drive regularly with CC Cloner.

That’s your base. On top of that you can add external drives, Mobile Me, whatever other cloud storage you choose but go for these as a minimum and you will at least have your important files available and recoverable as well as get your Mac up and running again in the event of a crash.

Do not trust Time Machine as your belt and braces, it is less reliable than the machine you are backing up.

One thing that is so clearly missing that it is impossible to think of it as an oversight, is the ability to bulk upload. It’s a feature that would stack it directly up against the likes of Dropbox.

There are some third party apps that will help you manage your Google Docs storage but these are limited to either Windows users running office 2007 or later, Google Apps Enterprise users or lovers of the command line.

What is needed is a simple web or desktop app to allow you to see what you have in your Google Docs account and sync your desktop files with it.

It must be in development, it has to be!

Such a system would not be hard to replicate even now, but an integrated system where files backed up to a LaCie drive would automatically be transferred to an online account would be an interesting proposition.

the Wuala service was developed in part at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich

Unfortunately I cannot fully test integration as I am not a PC user but I have certainly been able to test interfaces etc.

The most basic option from Microsoft is Windows Live Skydrive. I say “basic” because it is a browser-only service. There is no desktop application that allows you to mount your Skydrive as a virtual disk.

Having said, that, it does offer a massive 25GB of space for free so if you are looking for a simple of way of storing files online and don’t mind using a web browser every time you want to add / remove / update files, Skydrive gives a great storage deal.

More intricate in its design is Live Mesh. It works similarly to services like Syncplicity, Mozy and Dropbox in that an application installed on each machine you want to sync up will keep those files in sync across the machines, as well as storing the files online. Change a file anywhere and that change is reflected across your Mesh. At the moment, no Mac client is available but one is planned, as is a Windows Mobile client.

Interestingly, there is no plan to charge for the service, or even place a storage limit.

Microsoft also offers a simple sync client that synchronises files across machines but does not store them. In this case, you will want to check out Windows Live Sync.

To be fair, it is a decent toolset and one that you may not have looked at but the PC-centric offerings limits its feasibility as a true cross-platform solution of which there are many.

Yahoo are closing their Briefcase service which really was a forerunner in this area, and was certainly the first online storage service I ever used although I must admit, I had totally forgotten about it years ago.

HP launched Upline last year and have already decided to cut it.

Some large players aside, online storage offerings are currently more of a core operation for the leading players, rather than just the result of a huge data centre purchase by existing business giants.

For me, Syncplicity is still out in front.

Now I will start by saying that it is a system that has only been in place for a couple of days but it seems to be working to plan.

The longest-installed backup system on my Mac is Mozy. You just tell Mozy which folders you want to back up and let it go. At intervals of your choosing, Mozy will check for any changes and make incremental backups. You can also set limits on the amount of bandwidth that Mozy uses.

I have always been happy with Mozy and never had to interfere with it much. It just works.

I recently added Dropbox to my backup regime when they added a Mac client. I like Dropbox a lot but one limitation I found was that it only backs up the contents of the Dropbox folder, you cannot selectively backup separate folders in other locations on your machine.

But after reading this Lifehacker post, I came upon a tool called SymbolicLinker which allows you to create symbolic links to your other folders and place them inside your Dropbox folder. Dropbox will then happily backup thos extra folders and the files in them.

From the comments in that post, I added Syncplicity to the toolbox and so far it seems to be the best tool for one huge reason. It seems to be the only tool that lets me Back Up my Mobile Me drive.

This potentially changes the way I work. Instead of using local files and folders, I can work from my Mobile Me drive and have these changes incrementally backed up to Syncplicity.

Symantec already offers a business online storage product called the Symantec Protection Network but the imminent (!?) launch of GDrive has prompted them to prepare a consumer product for launch.

It is not yet known whether this will be a stand alone product or be used to augment the offering of their suite of protection software but it is likely that they will major on some extra security measures which could include encryption of data and virus scans on all uploaded files.

Erich Clementi, responsible for Blue Cloud, said :

“Cloud computing leverages many of IBM’s core strength … and gives clients the opportunity to leverage cloud computing’s considerable cost advantages, while maintaining the highest levels of integrity, responsibility and control.”

With IBM and Adobe joining the likes of Microsoft and a host of private companies offering online data storage, the GDrive will have to offer functionality beyond most of these alternative offerings but I expect will initially focus on tight integration with Google Docs and Gmail.

As he says, “It’s a Fact: Shit Happens.” so keeping your data up there in the cloud makes sense for people who want to keep their data removed from threats like flood and fire, or who just need access to it from (almost) anywhere.