Dropbox: The killer app for online storage

I’ve dabbled in a couple online storage solutions, most recently Windows Live Mesh.  Some of the things that these services are able to do (cross-device synchronization, easy sharing and collaboration) never cease to amaze me.  My amazement was only doubled when I saw that Dropbox, a service which was closed beta until just recently, opened the flood gates to the masses.  On September 11th they went live and now anyone can give their service a try, and before I get too far ahead of myself I suggest you go to GetDropbox.com and, at the very least, watch the video they’ve put up displaying some of the features of Dropbox.  Chances are good that you’ll sign up right after seeing the video, but I’ll go ahead and continue the post anyways.

The most important part of Dropbox is that it has accomplished what Windows Live Mesh couldn’t – cross platform compatibility.  Now I recognize that Microsoft probably hasn’t implemented cross platform Mesh yet because of the remote desktop feature (a feature that Dropbox doesn’t have, and a feature cool enough to keep Mesh installed on my Windows boxes).  Still, it’s surprising that I can’t at least sync my files to my Macs.  Dropbox enables that functionality with style…not only can you sync files but it happens extremely fast and it’s all integrated with Finder/Explorer so you don’t have to run any foreign-looking applications. 

So what if you’re using a device that Dropbox isn’t installed on?  Fortunately Dropbox has an excellent website that allows you to access, share, and interact with all of the files you’ve synced.  They even take it a step further by allowing you to restore files you may have accidentally deleted, so you don’t have to worry about ever losing anything.  On top of all of that you get the non-essential “wow, that’s cool!” sort of functionality such as automatic shareable photo galleries, and before you know it you’ve fallen in love.

So is there anything wrong with Dropbox?  Not really.  The only thing I was hoping for was a decent iPhone app/web app, but I just checked and they even have that.  If you visit getdropbox.com from your iPhone/iPod Touch you get a touch-optimized version of the site with a list of your recent activity (uploads, changes to your files etc.) as well as the ability to view everything you’ve uploaded (I tested images, text files and even Word 2007 .docx files, all were viewable!).  I’m not sure if the iPhone/iPod Touch version of their site lets you upload new files, so if that’s the case then that’s the only drawback.  I’m sure eventually they’ll either add that to the site or put out an application for it.  The only other drawback is that you only get 2 gigabytes of storage (Live Mesh comes with 5 gigabytes).  Still, 2 gigs is more than enough for the documents, images and any other miscellaneous files you’ll want to sync – just don’t plan on uploading very many full-length movies or anything.  If they’re looking to monetize Dropbox down the road I’m sure that’s one way they can do it – offer higher capacities.  The service is so good that, if needed, I’m sure a lot of people would pay for the extra storage.

This is a rather short post, but there isn’t much else to say.  Dropbox is the most exciting web application I’ve seen since Live Mesh and, in my opinion, it trumps it easily.  If you haven’t already, head over to GetDropbox.com and watch their demo video.  Like I said in the first paragraph of this post, I’m sure you’ll find yourself signing up and downloading Dropbox almost immediately afterwards!

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