Google Drive – the new DropBox competitor is just around the corner. Sources say it could be launching as soon as next week.

Google Drive plans found by The Next Web

Brad McCarty at The Next Web got lucky and received a draft release from a partner of Google’s upcoming Google Drive service which  discloses lots of information about how Google plans to take on the incumbent Dropbox. The story: 5 GB of storage, and it launches next week, most likely on Tuesday at http://drive.google.com

Brad McCarty commented:

Now let’s talk details. It’s no surprise that it will roll out for free. What’s interesting though is that Google is planning to start everyone with 5 GB of storage. Of course you can buy more, but that trumps Dropbox’s 2 GB that is included with every account. Dropbox does make it easy to get more space, including 23 GB of potential upgrades for HTC users.

What’s also interesting is the wording related to how the system will work. It’s been long-thought that Windows integration will come easy, but that getting the Google Drive icon into the Mac a la Dropbox would be a bit harder. From what we’re reading, Google Drive will work “in desktop folders” on both Mac and Windows machines, which still leaves the operation question unanswered.

Google Drive leaked at TechCrunch

TechCrunch has been able to download and run the app and it is currently idle, sitting quietly in the corner, unable to connect to the service at Google.

The version they were given is 1.0.2891 and seems to run without issue. They were able to log in using the Gmail account. It currently throws an error stating that “Google Drive is not yet enabled for your account.”

Though not definitive proof that the service will launch next week, it’s clear that this is a full, working app. There is native support for Google filetypes like files produced in Gdraw and Google Docs.

At this point the app is pretty much useless. It seems Google needs to activate the service from their end in order to enable the functionality.

 Google is not commenting on Google Drive at yet. “We do not comment on rumor or speculation,” a spokesman told msnbc.com Monday.

Read more at The Next Web and TechCrunch