A Hack that Turns Gmail into a Free, Online Storage App

Third-party developers have created "Gspace," an interesting tool that is designed to be a snap to install and use - - and take advantage of all of your unused storage in your Google Gmail account (or accounts.)

Gspace is an add-on for the Mozilla Firefox web browser - - free for download. Once installed, it allows the user to combine multiple Gmail accounts into one console and then - - in what resembles FTP - - upload and download files into unused Gmail storage. (The company says the tool can be used on systems running Windows, Linux or Mac OS X.)

Officially, Google provides 2 GB of storage for a Gmail account, but most Gmail accounts provide 6 GB or more of free storage. And Google doesn't really limit the number of Gmail accounts that a single person can establish.

Gspace is easy to deploy. Download and install the Firefox add-on tool, pop open the Gspace management console, sign in to your Gmail account(s), and simply upload your files into your available Gmail storage. (On this end, there was a temporary hiccup with the service that prevented signing on for about a half-hour.)

So what's the catch?

Well, there could be a few. For starters, Google's program policies for Gmail provide a few potential snafus, including rules that tell users they can't:

"Create multiple user accounts in connection with any violation of the Agreement or create user accounts by automated means or under false or fraudulent pretenses;

"Sell, trade, resell or otherwise exploit for any unauthorized commercial purpose or transfer any Gmail account;

"Modify, adapt, translate, or reverse engineer any portion of the Gmail Service. . .;

"Reformat or frame any portion of the web pages that are part of the Gmail Service. . . "

A $300-an-hour lawyer might be able to look at those policies and have a field day with the Gspace service. And it's safe to say that Google can afford a few, $300-an-hour lawyers.

If Google tried to thwart the Gspace service, it could wind up costing it more in bad press and customer relations than it would be worth, but before you upload any important files via Gspace it's worth considering.

Also, the Gspace web site itself says, "this extension is no way affiliated with google and google has not endorsed this extension. . ." and that "Changes that google may make to gmail may cause this extension to cease to funtion (SIC) or not function properly."

Reading the FAQ on the Gspace site doesn't exactly give you the feeling that it's mission critical, either.

For now, uploading some files to Gmail storage via Gspace is a cool way to grab some extra storage for free. But make sure those files are backed up somewhere else.