America Online is developing a new service that will let its members back up files from their PCs onto AOL data centers, so members can recover files either deleted accidentally or lost due to a hard-drive failure, an AOL executive says.
"The concept is for users to very easily, either automatically or with one click, back up files from their hard drives to the AOL data centers," says Kerry Parkins, director of product marketing at AOL. The backup feature is an interesting one to add to the AOL online service, but its adoption will depend heavily on AOL"s making a case to members about its benefits, since PC users in general aren"t in the habit of backing up their hard-drive data, says David Card, a Jupiter Research analyst.
Fee-Based Backup
The file backup will be a premium service with tiered monthly pricing based on storage levels: $3 for 100MB, $5 for 250MB, or $10 for 1GB, on top of the monthly AOL fee, according to information gathered from an AOL brochure and from AOL"s online service, where the service is currently being beta-tested. Members can access it by typing keyword: File Backup.