Dropbox: File Sharing made Perfect

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a beta for Dropbox. Like so many people, I have experimented with tons of various file sharing/storage applications, and most of them did not last half a day. Dropbox is not only the exception, but it has made my workflow and communication with our team fundamentally easier. Here are 3 of my favorite things about it:

2 Minutes to Setup and Start Syncing

Simple setup was the key to hooking me. It's mostly self-explanatory, and took less than 2 minutes for me to drag a bunch of files into my Dropbox and start the upload process. Within about 24 hours, I had 8GB of my files uploaded to Dropbox. Dropbox has already bailed me out in a serious way. A couple of weeks ago, prior to leaving for a week of work in New York and Austin, my powerbook stopped working completely. No power at all after 2 batteries and days of charging. I had to get a new MacBook (love it, by the way) in New York when we arrived. The first thing I did on my new computer was try to access all my important business files that I would need over the next week. Once I linked my account, I had the latest versions of all my files downloaded locally within 2 hours. WOW! Not only that, but when I got home and started up the desktop, it automatically downloaded the updated files from my laptop that were created or modified during the trip.

File Backup and Restoration

Another really great feature of Dropbox is that it constantly keeps backups of your files. Let's say you save the same file 5 times over 5 days. All 5 versions of the file would be available from the web interface, and it only takes one click to restore a prior version. This feature also bailed me out recently.

Super Simple Sharing

Sharing files and folders is also quite easy with Dropbox. From your desktop, simply right-click the folder you want to share, and Dropbox has sharing options in the contextual menu. This takes you to the web interface, where you can instantly share folders with other people that you specify. Sharing folders is also a nice way of providing your friends and family with Dropbox accounts rather than making them wait in line for the beta. In the last week, our team has gotten on board and is sharing files for projects and other work.

Obviously, Dropbox gets 5 stars from me. It's the way file sharing and storage always should have been. I can't wait for them to release plans with more storage space so I can ramp it up even further. You can visit their site to signup for the beta and also watch a cool video of the application in action.