A couple of weeks ago, I posted an article called "How Big is the Biggest Library:" that was riffing off of the Kevin Kelly NYTimes article "Scan This Book". In it, I estimated that the total size of all data was about 39 petabytes which came close to Kelly's estimate of 50 petabytes.

From a recent post at BarronsOnline...

"...Responding to a question about reports that Google plans to offer a hosted data storage service for consumers, Gates acknowledged that Microsoft is planning to offer “petabytes in the sky” to store data...."

Emphasis mine.

What an extraordinary statement. We have two mega-companies vying for storing all of our personal and business data.

Of course, the reason is that ability to attract page views to turn into targeted ads or attract attention or some other monetization of our own data back at us.

Fair enough, I think.

Back in the '90's we used to say that Content is King in order to attract attention to your website. Now it seems to be true all over again, but it's not just any content it's ALL content. This is surely the longest of the long tails and it is enabled by cheap disk space.

Maybe there are diamonds in those petabytes ...

Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and petabytes in the skies... (actual lyrics here)

Apologies to John L.