Google makes appeal to packrats

Google has launched a new service that will allow users to expand their Picasa and Gmail storage limits.

Currently, the two free services offer 1GB and 2.8GB of storage space respectively.

Users who run out of storage space will now be able to purchase additional space from Google. The extra space will start at $20 for 6GB and sell as a yearly subscription service.

Additional storage plans include 25GB for $75, 100GB for $250, and 250GB for $500 per year. Unlike storage on the free service, users who have purchased the extra capacity will be able to fill it with any combination of Picasa and Gmail content. Free users are limited to each service's default limit.

Gmail launched in 2004 with a 1GB storage limit. One year later that was increased to 2GB, and later to 2.8GB. At the time, this was considered an extremely large amount of storage space in comparison to rival services such as Yahoo Mail and Microsoft's Hotmail.

Google saw its capacity lead diminish, however, when Microsoft bumped Hotmail's limit to 2GB, and Yahoo removed storage limits altogether.