According to Microsoft Watch, Microsoft is getting ready to launch a “Live Drive”, a virtual hard drive that will allow users to store personal data online.

It would be a direct competitor to Google’s planned GDrive , which will offer users unlimited online storage. Both options leave .Mac’s iDisk looking like the 360KB floppy disk of the Internet age.

You can already make a limited storage space for yourself using your Gmail account and a tool like gDrive but it has nothing like the rumoured size of Google’s own GDrive.

Ray Ozzie, CTO at Microsoft, let slip (strategically leaked?) Microsoft’s verison in an interview with Fortune Magazine.

The article is interesting. It describes how Bill Gates is looking to Ozzie to revive Microsoft’s fortunes and reputation by jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon. In part it says,

Gates and Ballmer … want to put Microsoft back out in front of the industry, where it has been for most of its history. Gates says he is fed up with Google being seen as the “thought leader” of the Internet Age.

Ballmer says, “We have the birthright to lead the pack. We’ve got more technology. We’ve got more experience.”

Put simply, Ozzie’s assignment is to Webify everything: To intertwine Microsoft’s entire product line – software for consumers, software for businesses, Xboxes, all of it – with the vast and ever-growing power of the Net.

“Everything we do should have a presence on the Web,” Ozzie says.

[Via Slashdot ]Microsoft, .mac, dotmac, idisk, live drive, gmail, gdrive, Google, web 2.0, bill gates

Take Control Books has just released a book on .Mac, written by Joe Kissell and edited by Dan Frakes.

Designed to “help you take control of every aspect of your .Mac membership”, it covers the whole gamut — .Mac‘s online contacts, iDisk, Backup, using iSync, publishing web pages an getting the most out of .Mac’s new Groups feature.

But what interests me most is the coverage of .Mac Mail, and the many tips on how to use it best both from its web interface and through Mail.app.

Joe covers all the features of email with .Mac — autoreplies, polling other POP accounts, adding your picture, aliases, the different kinds of .Mac memberships available and how to get the right one for you.

The style is clear, direct and firmly focussed on making the use of your .Mac account better in real-world terms.

At only USD 10, it’s a bargain. The perfect companion gift to the .Mac account you are buying for the people you love this Christmas!

Check it out on the Take Control web site. Read the preview. Buy the book.