How Google has kept me into their ecosystem on a more permanent basis

I’ve been a user of Google’s cloud storage for both photo and file storage for a number of years. However, since about 2021, I started to pay for their storage options so I could have peace of mind for both my photos and videos being stored, and also have plenty of room to save my files.

Everything’s been fine for quite some time, and I’m paying £7.99 a month. However, recently I did start to think about changing to Microsoft One Drive because for the same price I can have both photo and video storage and file storage plus the use of Microsoft Office suite on both Mac, PC, iPhone and Android all at that price.

Approximately a day or two after I started researching this, Google did something which I wasn’t expecting and that was to add some more features to the Google One subscription, at no extra cost they added both Fitbit premium and also Nest Aware (camera cloud storage) into their prices here in the UK so that means for £7.99 a month I’m getting more for my money and since I was already paying for Nest Aware for my outdoor cameras of £50 last year. I was going to get this included in my £7.99 a month.

By accepting this deal I got a £15 rebate on my already paid Nest Aware and I’ve saved myself a renewal fee of around £60 this year. So without having to do anything extra I’m now getting more for my money than I would have been if I had changed over to Microsoft. This does mean now I am into Google’s ecosystem on a more permanent basis than I originally thought, and Google’s been quite clever over the years by offering 15GB of storage for free whereas Companies like Apple you’re getting only 5GB of iCloud storage free before you have to start paying and this eventually means that Google are going to be you have a higher chance of getting, converting free subscriptions to paid and keeping more on a permanent basis.

Now Apple is trying to get children to use their iPhones now so that when they’re older they have a higher likelihood of using iPhones and Macs. Google is doing the same when it comes to their storage solutions by offering higher free storage than some of the competition in the hopes that people will stay with them long term because it’s more hassle to change over to other companies when you’re not going to get much more for your money.

So I have to say being sucked into the Google ecosystem may have taken a bit longer. It’s paying off for the company and strangely enough I don’t mind. Let us know if you pay for cloud storage and if so who you have chosen.