Dropbox, it’s a good thing…

Dropbox is a handy little tool for anyone who works with more than one computer, or has the need to deliver or receive files from others.

What is Dropbox?

To put it simply, Dropbox is a provider of online storage space. But to leave it simply at that would be a gross understatement. Dropbox has been made with integration in mind, and it integrates beautifully.

One of the best features Dropbox has to offer is it’s desktop integration. No clunky interface, or hard to manage uploads. Your Dropbox appears on your desktop as a folder, and you can do any and everything to the files in your Dropbox, that you would normally do to all your other files.

To upload a file, simply drag and drop a file into the folder and Dropbox automatically uploads it. Every time you save or make changes to a file in your Dropbox, it’s automatically uploaded. Waiting for a file from someone else you’re sharing a folder with (more on sharing folders below)? Either with Growl (Mac), or a toolbar popup (Windows), you will be alerted to the changes on your Dropbox.

Have a file on your Dropbox that you want to share with someone, but don’t want to give them access to your other files? Dropbox lets you create public links for files in your public folder. Simply move your file into the public folder, left click it, select drop box and copy public link. Then simply paste the link into an email, or wherever, and you’re set.

This is a great feature, and couldn’t be any more simple.

Dropbox also gives you the ability to share a whole folder with others. To do so, you simply specify the email addresses of those you wish to share with, and if they don’t already have an account with Dropbox, an email is sent to them. This makes it so convenient and easy to work closely with someone else on a project.

One thing that confused me about Share Folders is the data management. I, at first, thought that since I was sharing a folder, whatever someone else uploaded a file, it would be counting on my account. I found this to be incorrect. Anything you, or anyone else, uploads to share folders, is counted against everyone. So take it easy on the Share Folders. ;-)

An alternate web interface is also available, allowing you access to your files on any computer, even without the software installed. With the website interface, you get a more refined selection of options. The ability to view past versions of your files, retrieving files you have deleted, adding share folders, and more.

A small thing to keep in mind though – upload through the web interface it limited to 350MB per file. But, uploading a file through the Dropbox software has no limit.

Dropbox supports Add-Ons to it’s software. There are platform specific applications and widgets that refine Dropbox even more, or there are online apps, such as PHP classes for adding an upload form to your website that uploads files to your Dropbox (Think client uploads). Just remember the 350MB upload limit through Dropbox’s website.

If I had to find anything negative to say about Dropbox, it would be these two small things.

First, the upload/download data that is displayed on your desktop isn’t enough for me. All that is displayed is the number of files being uploaded, the speed, and how much longer until the upload/download is complete (right). If they only added the total data is being transferred, how much has transferred, and how much is left. An estimated time until completion is not enough.

The second would be deleting files. While I like that Dropbox gives you the ability to retrieve files you have deleted, I feel the system should be more refined. When you delete files, they are only hidden in your Dropbox, and then have to be purged through the web interface to be complete deleted. To purge files, you have to do each one individually, through the web interface. I think Dropbox should add the option to both automatically purge deleted files after a certain amount of time, and an option to purge all deleted files from your Dropbox. And the ability to purge files from your desktop. At least deleted files that haven’t been purged don’t count against you.

Again, these aren’t huge things, but still something to bring up.

Dropbox is a great service and I would highly recommend it for anyone having to deal with networks and multiple computers. It makes everything just so much simpler.

At the time of writing this, Dropbox provides 3 different types of accounts. The free account gives you 2GB of storage space, while the other 2 paid accounts are 50GB and 100GB at $10/month and $20/month respectively, with discounts for annual payments. The 2GB free account is an incredible deal when you think about it, considering most other products of this type don’t even offer a free account.

Oh, did I mention it’s cross-platform? (Windows, Mac, Linux) ;-)

Dropbox