Microsoft, Google offer free cloud storage promotions
NEW YORK—You may have some extra online storage for all those videos and other files that are piling up.
Microsoft and Google this week are giving away a combined 102GB of cloud storage free--100GB from Microsoft, 2GB from Google---to help give your files some breathing room.
Cloud storage has gotten off to a rocky start the past couple of years. While expected to be the way photos, videos, documents and data are stored in the future, hackings over the last few months have made security an ever-growing concern while storage space has continued to be a restrictive and expensive commodity.
Few companies currently offer more than 20GB of storage for free, which users quickly eat up while trying to store music and high-megapixel smartphone pictures. Prices for additional storage ranges from $1.99 per month for 100GB on Google Drive to $19.99 a month for 1TB on Apple's iCloud.
But there are often ways to "earn" additional storage gratis, through various perks--- inviting others to join a service, say, or by downloading various apps. Dropbox, for example, offers up to an additional 3GB for free to those who download the company's Carousel photo app.
Rarely however, do any of the major services offer huge gobs of extra storage for free.
Microsoft bucks that trend with a generous offer of 100GB of OneDrive storage for free for two years to those who sign up for the company's Bing Rewards program. Bing Rewards is Microsoft's perks program for users of its Bing search engine, offering "points" for searches that can be later redeemed for gift cards, contest entries, Xbox Live memberships or other items.
As part of the offer, which is open to new and existing Bing Rewards members, you agree to get a Bing Rewards newsletter. You can always unsubscribe from Microsoft's emails at any time. Microsoft currently charges $1.99 per month for 100GB of OneDrive storage, so all in all it's a small price to pay for what amounts to nearly $50 worth of cloud storage over two years.
Google for its part is not offering much extra storage but it is trying to fight malicious hacks. In an attempt to make sure your user account security settings are up-to-date the company is offering 2GB of permanent, free Google Drive storage just for checking your account settings.
It's a pretty simple three-step process. First you review your phone number, recovery email address and security question to ensure that the information is accurate in the event that Google asks you about any suspicious activity or if you are locked out of your account. This is followed by quick glances at where you recently signed-in and what devices or services you are currently signed on.
Google's promotion runs until February 17, with the storage to be distributed by the end of the month. Microsoft's offer can be redeemed instantly with the promotion ending on February 28.
Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter@eliblumenthal