The Google Blog announced they are allowing users to pay for additional storage for Gmail and Picasa.

Currently Google gives you 1GB of free space for Picasa and 2.8GB of free space for Gmail. You can now buy additional space, and Google hopes to expand this service to their other services, such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

The current plans are: 6GB for $20.00 per year, 25GB for $75.00 per year, 100GB $250.00 per year, and 250 GB $500.00 per year.

You can purchase the additional storage over here, and you can check your current storage usage at this page. Google Blogoscoped has screen captures of what it looks like to have the premium storage, and Google Operating System shows how to pay for that storage. There is additional information on this FAQ page.

In related news, Microsoft launched their beta storage service named Live SkyDrive. Live SkyDrive allows you to store files online privately, to share with friends or to share publicly. With the launch, Microsoft added a new upgraded look and feel a new feature named “Also on SkyDrive,” thumbnail images so you can better see your files, a drag and drop feature for your files and a way to embed your files anywhere.

Michael Arrington reviews both Google and Microsoft storage solutions, saying, “Both fell flat.”

Related Topics: Google: Gmail | Google: Picasa | Microsoft: General

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz