Google Cloud Storage adds several highly requested features

By Navneet Joneja, Product Manager

Google Cloud Storage enables you to use our storage and network infrastructure to store and access your data with high reliability, scale and performance. Today, we’re launching several frequently requested new features:

Signed URLs and updated browser uploads

Many of you have asked us for "virtual valet keys" that give limited access to specific data to the bearer for a short time, enabling them to implement application-managed access control for mobile applications, premium content distribution, and so on. You can now implement these applications and more using short-lived signed URLs to address any object stored in Google Cloud Storage. This feature gives your application another powerful tool to control access to any piece of data. You can also use this feature to enable browser-based uploads from your end users to Google Cloud Storage without requiring them to have Google accounts (browser-based uploads were previously limited to the interoperable API). URL signing is implemented using PKCS-12 keys and the industry-standard RSA algorithm and is currently experimental.

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing

We now support configuring storage buckets to return appropriate Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) headers, which streamlines the development of advanced JavaScript applications (such as browser-based games) using Google Cloud Storage. Other uses include serving web fonts from Google Cloud Storage and enabling trusted JavaScript access from your App Engine applications.

gsutil 3.0

We've been hard at work making gsutil easier to use at all levels. This latest release includes significant enhancements:

• A refactored, cleaner code-base
• Better in-tool documentation
• Easy in-place update to new releases
• Multithreaded operations
• A hierarchical file tree abstraction layer that maps more closely to the way traditional file systems are organized.

To try all these features and more, download the latest version of gsutil (zip, tarball). Please note that wildcard and list bucket semantics have changed in gsutil to make the tool easier to use in a broad variety of use cases. You can read all about the latest update in the release notes.

We also recently reduced storage prices across all usage tiers by up to 15%.

As always, we welcome your feedback in our discussion group. If you haven’t tried Google Cloud Storage yet, you can sign up and get started here.


Navneet Joneja loves being at the forefront of the next generation of simple and reliable software infrastructure, the foundation on which next-generation technology is being built. When not working, he can usually be found dreaming up new ways to entertain his intensely curious almost-two-year-old.

Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor