On my last post I gave a list of places on the internet that you could store document and other items in the cloud. One of the locations was dropbox.com. I have spend some time with Dropbox and would like to give a closer look at the product.
If you are looking for a tool that is used to backup your data then Dropbox is not the correct tool. However if you are looking for a tool that is easy to use from the local PC and gives you access to you files from any PC, or Smart Phone, or the web, then this IS the tool that you are looking for.
Dropbox can be found at dropbox.com. It is very easy to install on your PC, MAC, Linux, or find it in the Android Market. This app is always Free. To sign up for an account you simply need and email address and a password. After the installation, you will find a Dropbox folder in your My Documents folder. Any files that you want to have access to, from anywhere, just copy them into this folder. They will get synchronized with the Dropbox server. Now you can go to dropbox.com, log in, and your files are there waiting for you.
But wait, it gets better. Download Dropbox on another computer, your laptop let’s say, and set up the same account. After the installation, all the files that are already synchronized in the cloud are not getting synchronized to your laptop. So no matter what computer you use, you will always have the latest version of a file.
The default storage size is 2 gig. This is not that bad. It is free after all. So one day you are telling your friend about drop box and how you have access to your files all the time. He thinks this is terrific and wants to sign up. So you send him an invite and he joins up. Now you both get and extra 256 meg of storage. Do this for 32 friends and you can end up with a total of 10 gig of FREE storage.
Another very nice thing that Dropbox does is allow you to create shares folders. You can share with any particular person or group of people. Dropbox also has a public folder that allows for files to be shared with any one through this public link.
There are only a couple of things on the negative side of Dropbox but they are minor items. First if you share a folder with another Dropbox user, the amount of data in the folder is consumed by both accounts. Meaning anything that your friend add to your shared folder comes of allowable space for you and for your friend. The second issue is that you can only have one account per user per machine. Meaning if you have 2 accounts, a personal and a professional, you can only have one account sync to your desktop. The second account can easily be access, however, form the dropbox.com web site. Another way to access the second account would be to share a folder between the two accounts and then you can access that folder in the second account from the desktop.
So jump on in to the world of Dropbox by getting started with this link to register and get 256 meg more space for yourself and for me. Todd’s Dropbox Referral Link.
There is a Forum on this data sharing in the cloud topic and I would love to hear from users on how they share, what application they use, and how it works for them.
Thanks and Enjoy.
