sorry for caps! but this is just f***** awesome

while trying to find out on what platform writely runs, i entered this:

http://www.writely.com/index.html

CHECK IT OUT!!

Platypus is the next big thing!

Whois for troutboard.com

Registrant:
   Patrick Chan
   Patrick Chan
   819 Howell
   Ridgecrest, CA 93555
   US
   Email: ABCD_XXXX_hotmail.com

   Registrar Name....: REGISTER.COM, INC.
   Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
   Registrar Homepage: www.register.com

   Domain Name: troutboard.com

   Created on..............: Wed, Feb 19, 2003
   Expires on..............: Mon, Feb 19, 2007
   Record last updated on..: Fri, Feb 24, 2006

   Administrative Contact:
   Patrick Chan
   Patrick Chan
   819 Howell
   Ridgecrest, CA 93555
   US
   Phone: 7603846078
   Email: ABCD_XXXX_hotmail.com

   Technical Contact:
   Register.Com
   Domain Registrar
   575 8th Avenue 11th Floor
   New York, NY 10018
   US
   Phone: 1-902-7492701
   Email: domain-registrar_XXXX_register.com

   DNS Servers:

   dns28.register.com
   dns27.register.com

Register your domain name at http://www.register.com

Wow, that's incredible! How on earth did it get linked from Writely? Too bad the links from there don't work :(

http://www.cocaman.ch/wp/2006/07/google-testing-gdrive-codename-platypus

Let's see what happens next :)

WOW! this is crazy. what is this?

Google Drive

Quote:
Storing your files in Platypus has a number of advantages over storing your files on either your C: drive or filer.

yeah i got that... what i meant was what is platypus??? and it's weird that this page appeared on writely!

Platypus is apparently the code name for GDrive. Unfortunately the download links aren't working for me.

same. do you all think this is real stuff? i mean, it appears on writely but this seems every odd. i don't know.

http://www.answers.com/platypus&r=67

I can only explain it with, that Google forgot to remove it while copying all over. Or this is the first "prove", that writely and GDrive store their data in one system (and later spreadsheets, gmail, picasa). Maybe the extra 6GB you can buy at picasaweb isn't worth it ;)

OREO, I agree with the skepticism, as the page seems totally out of place. But since it's on writely I've got to believe it. They even mention GDrive on the page, which is even stranger.

http://digg.com/software/Google_s_GDRIVE_Project_Leaked!!

Search-Engines-WEB is SO-O MISCHIEVOUS

If you look at the source of the page there is some more information including the author and other details in comments.

a copy of it, with minor edits and the logo is fake :)

http://cocaman.ch/_platypus/google_platypus.html

Please provide an as-it-was version. (i.e. no changed logo)

Yes sir:
http://cocaman.ch/_platypus/

without google analytics :)

Very good catch Corsin!!

It's a nice discovery indeed, I wonder how much space they will offer ?

This Gdriven, Platypus seems very far from launch (remember CL2), now Google will be even more cautious about this, hope we see more info soon!

PS: None of these typical URLs works!

https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?service=platypus
https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?service=platypus
https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=platypus
https://www.google.com/accounts/EditUserServiceData?service=platypus

Yes, I think it´s not question of this month, at least. I wonder why Picasaweb has only 250 MB (and 6 GB paid). So it´s very improbably that in near future we will see Gdrive with unlimited or very big storage. I think Platypus is simply a service for Googlers, only for Googlers. I don´t believe that Google already has enough servers for all files of all users. So it´s sure, that the offer for users has to be limited (5 GB max?) and more would be paid.

iZeitgeist said:

<< PS: None of these typical URLs works! >>

Yep. And if they did, my script would've probably found it already. If you view the login box, it says "Username or group name" so I doubt its uses Google Accounts for login.

BTW, the author of the page (according to comments in the source code) is "Justin Rosenstein" who is Product Manager for Google Page Creator. His website is here:

http://www.roadlesstraveled.org/justin/

Anyone fancy emailing / AIMing him to ask for any comments?

He is not yet online :)

That troutboard.com is redirecting to the localhost...

Different meanings of Platypus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus_%28disambiguation%29

What's the link of that animal with an on-line file storage? ;-)

Well maybe this could be the link?
http://www.highbeam.com/library/docFree.asp?DOCID=1G1:80479681

Does anyone knows this company called Platypus?

Corsin, why did you show us the Whois for troutboard.com?

Because of that:

R:>tracert troutboard.com

Routenverfolgung zu troutboard.com [65.57.245.29] über maximal 30 Abschnitte:

   1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 172.16.20.1
   2 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms 217.151.112.129
   3 1 ms 1 ms 2 ms 217.151.112.73
   4 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms 217.151.112.6
   5 8 ms 7 ms 6 ms 194.230.36.5
   6 6 ms 7 ms 7 ms g5-1.zur01b04.sunrise.ch [195.141.93.198]
   7 10 ms 10 ms 11 ms p9-0.lau01b04.sunrise.ch [193.192.225.66]
   8 11 ms 10 ms 11 ms 213.242.73.149
   9 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms so-5-0-0.mpls2.geneva1.level3.net [4.68.125.181]

   10 32 ms 32 ms 32 ms ae-1-0.bbr2.london1.level3.net [212.187.128.57]

   11 174 ms 174 ms 176 ms as-0-0.bbr1.sanjose1.level3.net [64.159.1.133]
   12 179 ms 177 ms 178 ms so-14-0.hsa3.sanjose1.level3.net [4.68.114.154]

   13 177 ms 175 ms 177 ms 65.57.244.26
   14 * * * Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
   15 175 ms 177 ms 176 ms 216-239-45-9.google.com [216.239.45.9]
   16 176 ms 178 ms 178 ms 65.57.245.29

Ablaufverfolgung beendet.

>> 15 175 ms 177 ms 176 ms 216-239-45-9.google.com [216.239.45.9]

So it "might" be an internal server

Tom: because the URL is on the printscreen. (I think you mean this?)

---

On Slashdot there's a discussion about the Google Storage in which Platybus is mentioned as a potential supplier. (http://slashdot.org/articles/02/02/03/1339216.shtml)

If I go to the website of Platybus it doesn't answer anymore. Maybe this company is taken over by someone & could that someone be Google?

Ok thanks guys

troutboard : http://jroller.com/page/knut?entry=interesting_google_referrals

i saw it late :(.. it says now (page has moved) .. anybody managed to download the tihng already?

Ramibotros yes scroll up
or click here: http://cocaman.ch/_platypus/

pk then what is this ??

https://platypus.corp.google.com/

corp.google.com is used for testing internal projects. You need to be logged in to access it.

From the source code of the page:

   <li><strong>Publish.</strong>
   All of the files you store on Platypus are automatically accessible from the (corporate) web. </li>
   <li><strong>Share.</strong>
   Other Googlers can mount your Platypus folders and open your files in read-only mode.</li>

Looks like Google has been using it internally, and that it publishes to the (internal) web automatically.

There's a robots.txt,
http://www.troutboard.com/robots.txt
disallows bot-being.

Niraj > yes, Ionut talked about this comments in his article.
and at the top of the code, you can see that this page was written by... Justin Rosenstein, the Product Manager at google ^^

Scoop, Corsin!

very nice :)

yeah :-)

the story appers tomorrow in a news paper in Zürich, Bern, Basel :)

Related to Platypus.net? From 2002 Press Release:

About Platypus Technology (www.platypus.net)

Currently headquartered in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, Platypus Technology was founded in 1999 in Sydney, Australia. The company is architecting highly secure and redundant solid-state storage systems that deliver hundreds of times more performance than hard disk drive-based storage alternatives. As conventional storage products fail to address critical performance demands, and RAM prices plunge, solid-state storage has emerged as the fastest, most cost-effective way to remove I/O data bottlenecks. Platypus' breakthrough performance-centric approach to storage is causing the industry to widely embrace solid-state as an economic alternative.

The company has established a strong U.S. presence since moving its corporate headquarters to New Hampshire while the research and development team remains in Sydney. The company maintains an U.K.-based office as well as relationships with a network of distributors and resellers servicing the U.S., European and Asia Pacific markets. Platypus can be found at www.platypus.net.

QikDATA M-series frees applications from the I/O (input/output) bottlenecks caused by hard disk drive-based storage, allowing mission critical files to run from silicon, rather than from rotating platters. Other benefits over disk-based storage include reliability, massive data transaction rates, faster access times and lower power use, all without the issues of moving parts.

I/O bottlenecks are common where hard disk drives cannot access or serve information to or from databases to meet the demands of applications. This can cause performance problems for mission-critical applications including billing, messaging, CRM, ERP and OLTP databases as they are increasingly restricted by these I/O bottlenecks.

Why did Google put a meta redirect to the index.html file? Why not send a 404 error? And the text is very ... curious too: This page has moved. Where did it move?

that just means "DON'T LOOK HERE, DAMNED GOOGLE BLOGOSCOPED READER!"

mc: It certainly sounds as though it's similar to the GDrive concept!

So, over to the Web Archive:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040130025448/http://www.platypus.net/

Also, from Wikipedia:

"After many months of virtually no sales and general disarray the company closed its doors in November 2003."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus_Technology

Corsin, couldn't it be that the redirect to the localhost has a meaning for the Googlers. It's not because it doesn't mean anything for us, that it doesn't mean a thing for them... It's maybe a redirection to a client side tool to enable the drive functionality (see it as some advance version of Google Desktop e.g., it's also served on the localhost)

Great find. Wouldn't you love to have corp access right now? :D the platypus.net page must have been bomarded because the site can't resolve right now.

Hmmm... other URLs on the http://www.troutboard.com domain that don't redirect to 127.0.0.1:

https://www.troutboard.com/c
https://www.troutboard.com/caribou
https://www.troutboard.com/xalerts

So I'm pretty sure this is a Google employee's machine / server...

(I found these by simply Googling for [site:troutboard.com].)

NateDawg said:

<< the platypus.net page must have been bomarded because the site can't resolve right now. >>

I think it's been offline since 2004. See my comments above:
http://blogoscoped.com/forum/44044.html#id44149

Wow! This is excellent news. The first evidence of GDrive apart from those Powerpoint notes a while ago.

Odd for it to be on the Writely domain though. Anyone think that this is perhaps now a closed project? Perhaps they were playing with the idea some time ago, but are now maybe doing a larger scale thing somewhere else.

This is probably fake, he probably made the page himself with the Platypus Firefox extension and named it Platypus.

http://platypus.mozdev.org/

He choose Writely because he knew if it was some other site, we could check robots.txt

Phillip did you see the site yourself

> Phillip did you see the site yourself

No. But Corsin saw it...

I submitted Corsin's story, the submission with the link to Writely.com might not take off:
http://digg.com/software/Google_Gdrive_Surfaces

If something has a code name it doesn't make sense that in the same page to appears the code name and the supposed actual name for the service.

Sohil said:

<< This is probably fake... >>

It's a very elaborate fake if that's the case. If what you say is true, Corsin's chosen a Google employee's name to add into the code, he's created several internal Google domains (which, admittedly, we don't know whether they're real or not since we can't view them) and he's linked to the http://www.troutboard.com domain which has been mentioned in many other places as being related to other internal Google projects.

I think you're wrong to be using the word "probably" – perhaps "possible" would be more suited... ;-)

Besides, I *think* there may be other people who saw this too. (If not, people have been creating their own mirrors of the same page using Corsin's mirror...)

I'm probably wrong, I just found it weird about Platypus.

Then again, after reading this forum a couple of times. It sounds convincing.

Very interesting! i assume you contacted David B then? ;-)

BTW – did the email says *Playtpus* (as in your comment) or *Platypus*? (Note the order of the letters Y and T...)

I think I just got a confirmation... I emailed Justin from the source backup Corsin made and apparently he's on vacation. However, the last sentence of the auto-reply was quite telling: it says that for Google Pages related concerns, Ojan V. ought to be contacted, and for *Platypus* issues, David B.! (Including full names n' emails.)

[Edit: Corrected spelling of Platypus]

Don't forget the openoffice.org connection. At the Web 2.0 conference Sergey Brin referred to Google's collaboration with Sun and OpenOffice.org:

"Documents would be easier to work with in the future, he promised, but he didn't think a fat client was the way to go. 'I don't really think that the thing is to take a previous generation of technology and port them directly,' he told Battelle. However distributed thin web applications allowed you to do "new and better things than the Office package and more."
http://www.theregister.com/2005/10/08/google_office/

Google Browser Sync is just the first "toe in the water". One day we'll have Google Office Sync. All your files available locally but also cached by GDrive. Edit your documents on your PC with OpenOffice, on the road with your web browser, or even on your PDA, with backups taken care of by Google.

It's quite a compelling scenario, and must be a nightmare for Microsoft, because it could obsolete both of their cash cows – Windows and Office.

Well, I guess the info's public after all...

7/17/2004 8:54pm
"So a lot has happened in the last three months. I bought a condo, got two kitties (Oreo and Kit), got a roomate Huy, became a techlead of project Platypus at Google, and met a crazy girl with multiple personalities named Cybil"
-- David Braginsky
http://daveey.netapt.com/weblog/

I have been reluctant to embrace applications that are completely online. I want the speed and lack of dependence on an Internet connection that my Desktop applications offer. I do want the data backup and accessibility that a web application offers.

A scenario where you you sync data between the Net and a PC or PDA is very intriguing to me. Like Roger said, something along the lines of how Google Browser Sync works. If this is what is coming, it will be HUGE.

Tony

<< ... became a techlead of project Platypus at Google ... >>

David Braginsky posted that on 7/17/2004 8:54pm!?!

Does that mean this project has really been kept "secret" for so long?

I guess that that finalizes the project scoop. its an official project and not just luanched!!

I think the Platypus codename is new, at least in connection with Gdrive. This was from the Google PowerPoint in which they accidentally left some comments, no mention of Platypus, but mention of Gdrive:

<<Theme 2: Store 100% of User Data

With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including: emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc).

We already have efforts in this direction in terms of GDrive, GDS, Lighthouse, but all of them face bandwidth and storage constraints today. For example: Firefox team is working on server side stored state but they want to store only URLs rather than complete web pages for storage reasons. This theme will help us make the client less important (thin client, thick server model) which suits our strength vis-a-vis Microsoft and is also of great value to the user.

As we move toward the "Store 100%" reality, the online copy of your data will become your Golden Copy and your local-machine copy serves more like a cache. An important implication of this theme is that we can make your online copy more secure than it would be on your own machine.

Another important implication of this theme is that storing 100% of a user's data makes each piece of data more valuable because it can be access across applications."
http://glinden.blogspot.com/2006/03/in-world-with-infinite-storage.html

As a non-tech person, I find this extremely exciting. This is exactly what I've been wanting – and counting on Google to provide, sooner rather than later.

The fact of you can work on the same files if you are under Windows or Linux is pretty good. Really good ;)

techcrunched

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/10/gdrive-plays-whack-a-mole-with-bloggers/

All this future thinking is fascinating, but I sometimes have trouble finding what all those products from Google can do for me today!

What I would like is a paper/book/site that shows some strategies to use Google tools in an integrated way to help me on a personal productivity point of view. E.G. "if you use this and that, it can help you do this and that".

Do you know of any source for that type of Google tools advice/tips/strategies ?

Thank you,

louis

P.S. I know about Philipp's book, but I want to work, not just have fun ;)

Eureka!

Thanks Louis,

As a Google fanboy as I am, I realize I have always been helping and showing my entourage what Google products/services can do for them on a daily basis,... so much that I know how much they can make your life easier.

Why not write a book about it!? I think I am set for my next project!

Techncruch is playing games with words.. Marshall intially wrote
" one screen shot is getting all over the blogosphere seems unwarranted to me.”

When I called him on it, there seems to be non transparent edit , which then appears to be "highly speculative rumor at this point"

Geeeeeeee.. thats does not seema like a 'fair process'

I've always disliked TechCrunch. I think only spelling / clarity corrections should be made without clearly notifying people.

But Clearly blog ethics state that edits should be made with clear transprancy.!

As a highly traffic blog of reputation (aka Techcrunch), they should abide by the rules themselves.. but nope they are too darn high and mighty – so the rest of bloggers who crack open something is 'unwarranted'..!!

Thats a big No No in my book!!

I used to really like TechCrunch but I find it difficult to keep up with so many posts now they have multiple authors. It feels like they used to report all the top quality web 2.0 news, and now they have this diluted with lots of other posts that are much less interesting.

As for the editing thing, you are spot on. Bloggers should always affix a postscript or something for notification.

I can confirm the sentence you saw there Pd, I also saw it and figured "huh?".

For this blog I have the rule to edit for clarity within the first 5 minutes after posting, and if someone happens to comment on the post within that time, to clarify that I was still in the initial clarification period. Later changes are either marked in the comments or using a strike-through in the post. But rewriting this blog software so that it supports previews again is on the list of todos this week!

PS: Oh yeah, and I edit the credit line after posting, as I often first ask for permission to use the name or full name.

This seems like an extension of the Cache facility built into Google Desktop. With "Search Across Computers" Google desktop already cache's files on Google's servers for remote access. GDrive/Platypus seems to be a direct interface into a simliar capability.

It's the potential of deliberate archival of files, favorites and browsing history that will make GDrive so powerful.

Daniel, in http://blogoscoped.com/forum/44044.html#id44150 I wrote also of the possibility that this could be integrated in Desktop. It seems logically to me...

I looked at the headers for troutboard.com. Nothing really noticable, other than it is on an Apache server. Everything I've tried so far (other than robots.txt, thanks Haochi) returns 127.0.0.1

NateDawg, those URLs I posted above [*] don't redirect to 127.0.0.1 either.

[*] http://blogoscoped.com/forum/44044.html#id44160

You can tell by the words they use, that Platypus in an inter-Google thing. It's for the employees.

thanks for the correction tony:) I'm late to the party and I must have missed your post. :-/

Does anyone here think that maybe Googs new Research Center has something to do with this ?

> You can tell by the words they use, that Platypus in
> an inter-Google thing. It's for the employees.

Agreed mentioning "Googlers" (=Google employees) or technical names like "filer" without explanation isn't directed at the public. But maybe this is just because it's a very early draft mode, written by the engineers and not yet proofread :)

just drive thru The Dalles. It's about thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis big. IE, blink and you miss it.

Kinda looks like an Area 51 operation to me.

Philipp – why don't you include the new findings (www.troutboard.com/caribou – gmail codename, justin's autoreplay and daveey.netapt.com/weblog/).
I was sceptical after reading your post, but now... it's pretty exciting. It's clearly for internal use right now, like Goobuntu. The question is if it'll be public in the future. The famous presentation suggests that it will.

https://www.troutboard.com/caribou

still seems to active.. credentials requested.. :)-

Ludwik, good idea, will do.

I love the fact that it asks you for credientials for "fishing fun" :)

Corsin, as the main page that you found says "find a new bug, get a free platypus t-shirt!", I think you should submit "web site viewable to the public" and get your free t-shirt. :D

forgot to put adsense there :

I need a T-shirt too

http://www.extonaustralia.com/images/agtsa21_b.jpg

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/ekay_1904_29771735

love the t-shirts fullfilth :D

lol hehe

hmm i need one of thoose!

Another ground breaking app frm Google. This is a paradigm shift in computing, and one that was envisioned by computer scientists. People have been talking about Google OS, now they have an answer. Building such a software layer for each and every PC, irrespective of the platform, is too good a proposition. Integration with the Google Account and Google Desktop would be great. Been using Writely, and have, at times, wanted to have a back up file on my PC. This issue is addressed with Gdrive.

Is it all good? InformationWeek called it "government drive" :)
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/07/googles_gdrive.html

> Google's Gdrive Stands For 'Government Drive'
I take it that this is supposed to be a joke, but it isn't exactly accurate reporting on InformationWeek's part.

I started out thinking fairly skeptically about this when I first read it here yesterday. Not too long after that i had thought enough about it that I was writing a blog entry considering the possibility of this being more than just Gdrive storage. I thought perhaps that was only a part of the Platypus project but now looking over the screenshot I think I could have been wrong about that part, heh.

I stumbled upon an interesting possibility as to what the whole "Platypus" thing might be a reference too. Look for a piece entitled "What the Platypus Dreamed" which was part of a collection in Richard Thieme’s popular book Islands in the Clickstream – Reflections on Life in a Virtual World. See what you think. It interesting if nothing else.

Read my last blog entry if you care to find out how I arrived at that as well as how I'm probably looking way too deeply into things, haha. I won't be linkdropping my first visit here, but you can assuredly find the entry since you're all clever folk.

Now I'm just dying to know what's going to happen, gah.

"<li><strong>Share.</strong>Other Googlers can mount your Platypus folders and open your files in read-only mode.</li>"

This shows more evidence that this service is for the Googlers only

Inferno,
As others have pointed out here already, it's being tested internally by Google. The dialogs might refer to Googlers because that who is using/testing it right now

Of course project Platypus may not exist at all, and if it does, it may be intended for internal use only and always. But the dialog box you point out does not preclude this being intended for a wider audience after internal testing.

Tony

I wrote an update... I think I was on the wrong track in some of my comments here yesterday!

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-07-11-n52.html

Look the comments for this page. It's a target for spammers.

Took care of it Ionut :D

I meant to say "lock", not "look". There are 2-3 spam comments every day for this page.

Ionut, there are many more spam comments that you probably don't even see. I'd like to think that between us we do a good job of clearing them up. The best thing to do is ignore them and wait for us to prune. That way, we've only got one comment to delete instead of two! ;-)

(BTW, locking a thread can only be done by Philipp – and perhaps that's an option for this thread as any new news regarding this topic should probably have a new thread created...)

I always ignore them, but this thread attracts the most spam comments. And I think it should be easy to prevent some of them from coming again and again. Most of them have the same pattern ("you have a great site...", a list of 50 links).