How does Google file document objects?

Question

How does Google store and organize documents, such as documents in Google Docs? I'd like to ask which file system Google uses, but I know it uses GFS, a distributed file system for storing huge files, basically the huge databases containing, among other things, also the Documents I am interested in.

My question is: Is each document a record in a DB? And how does it identify documents in a hierarchical system, such as web pages? How does it relate them, or represent the hierarchical structure, if needed?

It looks like Google created his own "file system" in a DB (besides the underlying GFS). Does anyone know any specification or its working?

Answer 1

For Google Drive, then yes, databases are involved, but unfortunately I can't really share any of the confidential details, sorry.

p.s. check out the GFS paper: http://research.google.com/archive/gfs.html