I stumbled upon (literally) an interesting website/service yesterday. It has the unfortunate name Dropload.com , which has horrible connotations. In a time where we “Google” things and “aim” each other, I’m not sure someone is going to want me to tell them that I’m going to “drop a load” on them. Maybe it is just me. It also has terrible looking graphics, so bad they are almost good. They could use a visit here or even here. It is amazing how two dollars well spent can completely change the look of something. Still, the look has a charm. Do I really need graphics, the shiny table of Web 2.0 to fill in a couple of boxes and click “Drop it” (like its hot, i guess). The answer is no.

The service is simple. You register (of course). Then you simply fill in the recipient’s email address, choose the file to upload and can even type a little note. As I mentioned above, you click “Drop it” and you are done. Your friend, lover, sister, brother, enemy, whomever will almost immediately get an email with a link to the file’s location and a nice little message. The message states that you have seven days to get this, you can only get it once so don’t just play it, etc… It even warns you that if you don’t know the sender, ignore it. The file will be erased in seven days. The service also provides the option to get a notice when the file is retrieved, and offers a virus scanner. All for free. I seem to remember reading there was a 100mb file size limit, but I cannot confirm that anywhere. There is no limit listed on the site.

Click here for Free Information Technology Resources!

So who can benefit from this? The answer is obvious. Legal file traders. Have some great new mp3’s released under Creative Commons Licensing? Send away. Want to send your parents the pictures of that rusty trombone you got downtown for cheap? The slow motion footage of the cowgirls in reverse you downloaded off Kazaa years ago? Go ahead and drop that load. I could go all night giving you examples of how to use this, but I am preaching to the internet savvy, I don’t have to tell you how to take advantage of this tool. You all know how to trade non-infringing material.

The downsides? No privacy policy at all to tell you how email addresses will be used. There isn’t anything stating anything, really. Are there filed server logs of the materials? Your guess is as good as mine. That said, it is a helpful and convenient service that is cost free. Unless your inbox starts filling up with spam. Still, there are ways to dodge that.

Overall, how can I not recommend this? Email is a terrible delivery tool for large files. There are other solutions but those tend to be cumbersome. This little website follows the Unix philosophy of doing one thing and doing it well.

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Comments

One Response to “File Sharing Made Easy that Looks Cheap”

  1. bob adamczyk on October 19th, 2006 2:16 pm

    since your talking about file sharing(I never said legal or not), don’t forget about ARES GALAXY. ARES.com there is an unlimited number of programs you can get including product keys for installs. I believe more programs should be free or open source and don’t really care where i can get it from as long as i get it. why should we have to pay hundreds of dollars for something that is full of bugs(every version of windows) and crashes all the time only to put billions of dollars into a company so ceo’s can get rich and we have to be inconvienced. big companies don’t care about the small guy at all, they just want your money. so if you can get software and not have to help a CEO bye a new car, boat, or summer house doing it, then just do it. remember, its not wrong as long as you can justify it. but stay within the moral boundary.