Google unifies cloud storage across Gmail, Drive and Google+, 15GB of free space offered

As a part of the process of integrating its various products, Google has now made changes to the way data is used, accessed and stored in free cloud storage offered with products such as Gmail, Google Drive and Google+ Photos.

Google announced that instead of offering 10GB storage for Gmail and another 5GB for Drive and Google+ Photos, it will now offer 15GB of unified storage, which can be used between Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos.

The move would give more flexibility to users, allowing them to make optimal use of cloud storage for the service they use the most. For instance, users who majorly use Gmail would be able to get 15GB of space instead of 10GB if they don't use Drive or Google+ photos. Similarly, users who store lots of data in Drive but don't use Gmail would get much more space in Drive compared to what they were getting earlier.

It also means that Gmail users who could earlier upgrade to a 25GB mailbox at max when they upgraded to a 100GB Drive plan, would be able to use the full 100GB offered in the same plan and upgrade to up to 16TB storage.

The consolidated space would be grouped under Drive and users will also be able to check how much of the space they've been using for individual services. They'll be able to see a breakdown of storage use across Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos when they hover over the pie chart that depicts Drive usage on the Google Drive storage page.

The changes to Google Drive storage will be rolled out over the next couple of weeks, according to Google. Google Apps users will also be getting shared storage shortly and they'll be able to share their 30GB unified space across Gmail, Drive and Google+ photos.

Google had earlier announced a "Save to Drive" button to save files directly from websites if websites added a code to enable it.