Dropbox Shows Off an Easier Way to Share Files
Dropbox is a new start up that wants to take the pain out of storing and sharing your files over the web. Although the company has just entered a private beta testing phases with limited invites, the screencast showing off the service makes it look very promising.
Dropbox works via a web interface, as well as Mac and Windows desktop clients. The clients themselves are reportedly written in Python though, so we don’t see any reason why there can’t be a Linux version.
The desktop clients are quite ingenious in that they act like normal folders on your desktop — just open up the Dropbox folder and it will connect to the service’s online storage mechanism (Amazon S3). Once you’re logged in to your account you can interact with the remote files and folders just like any other file/folder on your desktop.
Any time you change a file it almost instantly updates the remote copy and notifies anyone you might be sharing it with that the file has changed. There’s even a very handy versioning system that tracks file changes, allowing you to roll back to early revisions. Other nice features include photo sharing options and the ability to recover deleted files.
I haven’t actually used Dropbox, but if it really works as well as the demo movie shows, it’s going to blow competitors like Box.net and others out of the water. Dropbox is definitely one to keep an eye on and we’ll be sure to check in when the site goes public.
[High Five to Jim]
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