Ryan Dillman

A friend of mine sent me an invitation to Dropbox today, which is basically a site where you can store your digital files online for the convenience of accessing them from any computer in the world.  I’d heard a little about the site but hadn’t been actively seeking an invite like many seem to be on various message boards I frequent.  Still, free is free, so I gladly used my beta code to try out the service today.

It takes about a minute to fill out the form to sign up for an account and maybe another 30 seconds (depending on the speed of your Internet connection and PC) to install the Dropbox software.  Once installed, a Dropbox icon is added to your System Tray at the bottom of your screen, as well as a folder located in your Windows Documents.  Drag and drop any file into the Dropbox and it will be quickly uploaded to your online account, accessible by logging into the website or installing the shortcut application on another PC.

I would have loved to have something like this when I was in college, as I had to carry a stack of floppy disks with me back then to hold all my papers and other homework assignments. (Yes, this was in the days before cd burners and USB flash drives).  Inevitably, being absent-minded, I would forget a floppy at home that had a paper on it I needed to finish or print out in the computer lab.  Since it was 30 minutes each way to get to campus, that was an extremely inconvenient thing to do and caused me to miss more than one class.

Besides the obvious file storage benefits, you can also upload photos and documents to share with others, as the site can generate a link for direct access to your photo gallery or document.  This can be usefull for sending files to those who can’t receive documents via e-mail or when you have so many photos you want to send to some one, it’s easier to just send a link.

The uses for Dropbox are many and varied and even though I have access to other means of storing files online, such as e-mailing them to my Gmail account, storing them on the webspace that came with my ISP account or simply uploading them to one of the many social networking sites that let you store certain types of files online, Dropbox offers more convenience than any of these alternatives.

The site is free for beta testers and according to their terms of service, beta accounts will remain free even when they go to a paid model.  I’m not sure how much space beta accounts receive, but the terms page mentions free accounts after launch will receive 1 gig of storage space, with premium accounts receiving more space for a fee.  The more gigs of storage you want, the more you pay.  Seems reasonable.

Will people pay for a service like this?  I’m sure some will.  I know many, like myself, probably will not, just because we’re used to getting everything on the web for free.  One gig seems like plenty to me for what I would use the site for.  Hopefully, their business model includes selling advertising to support the free accounts so they don’t go out of business because of all the freeloaders, such as myself.