Getting a few gig’s worth of space for freebie online storage these days is not a big deal for most people. After all, Gmail offers 7.2GB of freebie email space currently (which many people use as storage only), so a few gigs is barely worth noticing.

However, when it’s 25, you do sit up and take notice. That’s just a tick over five 4.7GB DVD’s worth of storage. Think about that for a moment. 25GB is a lot of space.

Continued

SkyDrive is a free online storage service offered by Microsoft. If you have a "Windows Live ID" (i.e. a Hotmail, MSN or Live account) you can try this out right now if you like.

This service gives you 5GB of online storage and it works for most that need a quick solution to store stuff online. It also allows for easy ability to share files out as well.

Here’s the good and bad of the service:

1. Shareable name does not follow your Spaces name.

I have a Windows Spaces name, it’s richmenga.spaces.live.com. Easy enough to remember. However SkyDrive doesn’t follow that.

Here’s my public SkyDrive address:

https://cid-8d261682ad54bd2c.skydrive.live.com/home.aspx

Yeah, umm.. this is pretty bad. It looks like a spam link – but it isn’t. That is my actual SkyDrive public address.

It should be richmenga.skydrive.live.com. Granted, that’s still a bit long but would be a ton better than what I’m given.

When you share out files, the names used in the URL are just as bad.

2. No drag, drop or move ability for files.

When you put a file into a folder – any folder – that’s it. It stays there. You can’t move it to any other folder you have. And there’s no drag/drop functionality inside the service at all.

3. Skydrive.com isn’t even owned by Microsoft(!)

Instead it goes to "Auto Europe Discount Car Rentals".

Crappy. If this service keeps the SkyDrive name this will be an endless source of confusion.

4. Easy to upload

It is easy to upload files to the SkyDrive service and it works well.

5. Easy to share

You can share files out easily also.

6. Easy to use

Aside from the fact you can’t move/drag/drop, this service is easy. In addition you always are made aware of how much space you have remaining via a small bar on the right when inside the service.

7. Ability to embed files/folders in your blog or web site VERY cool

With any file or folder, you can generate a link with code to put in your blog or web site. This is a nice simple way to get people to your public shareable files easily (compared to those crazy malformed-looking links).

For example, you could take one of my files and hit the "Embed" button above the file name. You are then given code that you can easily post afterwards.

You can do the same thing with folders too.

Verdict

Being that pretty much everyone has a Hotmail account (whether you use it or not), this is a super-easy way to get 5GB of shareable (or private) online storage.

If/when Microsoft puts in the ability to move files and drag/drop ability, it’ll be tough to beat.

SkyDrive is a Windows Live service that offers a free 5GB of online storage. If you have a Hotmail, MSN or Live account you can access this right now. If not it’s free to sign up for it.

This is one of the few Live services I haven’t used so I tried it out to see if it is in fact easy to use.

Above: This is the first screen you see (after logging in first) when you begin to use SkyDrive.

Above: By default the service will create 4 private folders and 1 public folder. To the right you can see how much space you have available to you. Each folder is clickable. Adding files can be done by clicking the "Add files" link to the right of the folders.

Above: When you click "Add files" the system will ask you where you want to store your files to. I clicked "Documents" from here as a test.

Above: I had 5 test documents to send, so I clicked the "Browse" button next to each field and selected the appropriate file.

Above: Successful confirmation that my files have been uploaded.

Above: I clicked on the first file I uploaded. From here you can add a description and/or comments if you like. In addition there is a web address on the right. Being that this is a private file, even if you posted it publicly nobody can get to it except you because it’s under your SkyDrive account.

Above: This is what happens when you upload a file into your public directory. The web address starts with http instead of https. This is a link you can send to anyone to get the file being that you purposely set it to be public.

Things of note:

This is stupidly easy to use – and that’s good. There’s basically no learning curve whatsoever. If you wanted a very easy way to store stuff online it doesn’t get much easier than this.

The only thing I can really complain about is that SkyDrive is somewhat buried. Sure, if you remember skydrive.live.com you’re all set. However I wish it was skydrive.com – which it’s not.

Alternatives:

If SkyDrive isn’t your thing, there’s also Xdrive (5GB free) and Box.net (1GB free).

Just when I thought I knew everything about Live from Microsoft, here comes another: www.WindowsLive.com. Is this the same at www.live.com? NO. It’s different. And I don’t mean different in a better or worse way. Just different.

First I’ll say that this is one of the few (if not only) web sites Microsoft has done that’s actually easy to figure out. You can consider this a "site map" of sorts for actual Live products including Hotmail, Mail (i.e. Windows Live Mail), SkyDrive and so on.

If you were confused – as everyone was/is – as to what Live is all about, this site at least puts things into better perspective and gives a general direction of where Microsoft is headed internet-wise.

Microsoft, believe it or not, "does internet" better than most and they’ve got the experience to back it up. For example, Hotmail predates Yahoo Mail. In fact it’s a challenge to find any e-mail service that’s still under the same ownership that’s been in operation on the internet for 12+ years.

Live’s competition is not Apple (especially considering they’ve been stumbling in the internet department). Rather, the competition is other internet companies.

Microsoft still has a way to go with Live. Although they’ve got some good stuff going on, there’s still a bit of clutter left to clean up. They can start with the naming conventions. Is it Hotmail? Windows Hotmail? Windows Live Hotmail? Live Hotmail? Live Mail? No one knows.

But at least WindowsLive.com helps you to figure that out.