With the advent of Google’s GMail a few years ago, and their explosive increase to 1GB (and subsequently 2GB) of storage in 2005 it was only a matter of time until they opened up the API to allow people to take advantage of GMail’s features.

Enter a series of add-ons for various operating systems which allow you to use your GMail account as a file storage location. They provide the ability to store files in an Internet accessible location, and retrieve the files from any computer which can access GMail and the internet.

Now, if you’re thinking this sounds like it would be a very slow mechanism to transfer data you’re right. These plugins essentially need to perform all the same functions as any other email client to send and retrieve the files. But it’s a case of accessibility vs. speed. For those files you just can’t live without, this may be the solution for you.

It can also clutter up your account a bit. If you still have a bunch of GMail invites, send one to yourself and set up a separate account to use as your “G Drive”.

For Windows users, download GMail Drive. For Mac OS X users, download gDisk.