Google Chromebook and Chromebox Buyers to Get 100GB of Free Google Drive Storage?

Google may soon offer Chromebook and Chromebox owners 100GB of free Google Drive online storage, according to code within the Chromium open source operating system.

Google+ user François Beaufort spotted the promo within the Chromium Code review site. Looking at the code, you’ll notice several mentions of an “alternative GDrive promo” and, within one JavaScript file there is welcome text that says “Get 100 GB free with Google Drive.”

100GB on Google’s online storage service would normally cost $4.99 per month, so it’s a savings of about $60 a year for Chromebook and Chromebox owners.

It’s not clear if existing Chromebook or Chromebox owners would get this supposed promotion. Digging in the Chromium code a bit, I found a checkSpaceAndShowBanner function that checks if the user already has 100GB or more of Google Drive. If so, the new welcome banner (supposedly with the 100GB offer) wouldn’t be shown.

Chromebooks such as the recently refreshed Samsung Series 5 have measly 16GB solid-state drives because the idea is to store and run everything in the cloud. Google has tightly integrated Google Drive into its Chrome OS.

With 100GB of free online storage, these ultraportable netbook-like laptops may be more attractive and usable.

[via Chromestory]