Free online file storage services like Box.net or XDrive may soon find the going very tough. Google plans for GDS, Lighthouse and GDrive online storage service to "store 100 percent of user data" are already well-known. Now Microsoft plans to offer a similar product called Windows Live Drive that offers "infinite storage" and "infinite bandwidth"

Software Genius and Lotus Notes Inventor Ray Ozzie has publicly acknowledged Live Drive plans. Adam Sohn of Microsoft independently confirmed the existence of a Live Drive project - "We'll continue to invest in services that enable anywhere, anytime access and Live Drive is the codename for a project in this space." The Microsoft hosted storage service was expected to be available via subscription.

These are certainly good times for the web consumer. We already had unlimited inbox storage, now is the turn for storing all your digital files online and access them from anywhere using any device.

Amazon also has an S3 web services for data storage. Yahoo has a similar product called Yahoo! Briefcase which offers limited storage and accessible only via the web browser. With Google and Microsoft entering the virtual hard drive market, it won't be surprising if we soon hear an announcement of Yahoo! Drive.