WebProNews

Tag: Dropbox

  • Dropbox Adds Web Bookmarking To Storage Service

    Dropbox Adds Web Bookmarking To Storage Service

    Dropbox made an interesting announcement on Wednesday in that you can now drag and drop web URLs into Dropbox on the web and desktop and open them on any device.

    Screen Shot 2015-08-19 at 4.51.25 PM

    Dropbox positions the feature as ideal for businesses and students for organizing resources, some of which are bound to be web-based. Dropbox’s Shachar Binyamin writes on the company blog:

    This means you can take your bookmarks anywhere, instead of having them confined to a certain browser on a certain computer. But it also means you can organize all your information, no matter the format, into Dropbox folders — so your information is in one central place.

    For example, let’s say you’re planning an event. Your event agency uses Word documents, and your marketing team puts everything in an online company wiki. Instead of checking two (or more) different locations for the information you need, you can put everything in a dedicated Dropbox folder that’s shared with the team — so your wiki URLs are next to your Word docs, which are next to the vendor invoices and the invite design mockups — and everyone can have easy access to all the files they need, on all their devices, from that one Dropbox folder.

    The feature will let you view content from both the iOS and Android apps.

    Dropbox recently said it has over 400 million users and is in use at over 8 million businesses.

    Image via Dropbox

  • Dropbox for Business Gets File Requests Feature

    Last month, Dropbox launched a new feature for file requests so users can more easily collect files of any size from groups on any platform regardless of device. The feature is now available for Dropbox for Business users.

    “File requests are a fast and simple way to collect files from the people you work with,” a spokesperson for the company explains. “Just send one request to as many people as you like, either via email or by giving them a link. Then they can upload a file up to 10 GB in size each — even if they don’t have a Dropbox account — and it’ll go right into your Dropbox.”

    “And with file requests come key admin controls,” the said. “Admins can choose whether or not their team members can create file requests, and they can also view member-specific activity for sending and responding to file requests.”

    The company says file requests are perfect for teachers and professors who need a way to collect papers from students as well as assistants and coordinators who spend time gathering receipts and invoices. The feature is also good for real estate agents who gather hundreds of applications for new properties and event planners who request assets and contracts up until the day of the event, it says. These are just a few examples of course.

    Since first announcing file requests, Dropbox celebrated its 8th birthday and shared a bunch of stats. For one, it has surpassed 400 million registered users. It says users are taking Dropbox to work at over 8 million businesses, and that there are over 100,000 actual Dropbox for Business customers.

    According to the company, users sync 1.2 billion files every day, create over 100,000 new shared folders and links every hour, and make 4,000 edits every second.

    Image via Dropbox

  • With Over 400M Users, Dropbox Is In Use At Over 8M Businesses

    Dropbox is celebrating its 8th birthday by sharing a bunch of stats, including the fact that it has surpassed 400 million registered users. According to the company, users are taking Dropbox to work at over 8 million businesses. They also have 100,000 actual Dropbox for Business customers.

    “It’s been eight years since Drew Houston submitted his Y Combinator application in the summer of 2007,” a spokesperson for Dropbox said in an email. “Today, Dropbox is excited to announce that they now have more than 400 million registered users. There are now 50 countries around the world in which at least 1 million individuals have Dropbox accounts.”

    “While it started off as a way to give people simple, secure access to their files anytime, anywhere, today Dropbox has become a place where people create amazing things together,” the added. “There’s a shift in how people are using our products: over a quarter of our users are using Dropbox to create, share, and collaborate on content.”

    According to the company, users sync 1.2 billion files every day, create over 100,000 new shared folders and links every hour, and make 4,000 edits every second.

    “When Dropbox for Business first launched, companies used Dropbox primarily for on-the-go access and backup. But over the past two years, we’ve seen their usage of Dropbox evolve,” the spokesperson said. “Today, companies like National Geographic use Dropbox to share tens of thousands of large images from far flung locations with their photo editors in Washington, D.C. and Under Armour uses Dropbox to exchange large design files with its manufacturing partners in Asia, increasing the speed of production and reducing the time it takes to bring new fashions to the market.”

    Here’s an infographic showing Dropbox’s progress over the years:

    dropbox

    Of its business tools, the company said in a blog post, “We’re committed to building simple, secure technology for businesses that employees love using. Over the past year, we’ve brought you a better way to manage teams with Groups, better sharing controls, and powerful integrations with best-in-class tools for eDiscovery, DLP, and other business-critical applications thanks to the Dropbox for Business API. And just today we announced more management and security features for IT.”

    Dropbox has ten global offices and a team of over 1,200 people.

    Images via Dropbox

  • Dropbox Adds File Requests For Collecting Files From Groups

    Dropbox announced a new feature for file requests so users can more easily collect files of any size from groups on any platform regardless of device.

    “Existing solutions to collect files – email, text messaging, social media, FTP servers, or even physically mailing hard drives – are clunky and often limited by file size,” a Dropbox spokesperson tells WebProNews. “Dropbox’s file requests is a simple, seamless solution that eliminates the back and forth and takes care of the organizing for you, right in your Dropbox account.”

    file-requests

    “With file requests, gathering photos, docs, and more from a group of people is simple,” the spokesperson says. “Need to collect bids from your contractor or create a family cookbook for your sister’s bridal shower? Just send out a link, and watch the files show up in your Dropbox for your eyes only. Whether you’re requesting items from your tech-savvy cousin or your tech-challenged mom, submitters won’t even need to create a Dropbox account to partake. The best part? Dropbox takes care of the organizing for you by adding the name of each submitter to the files they send in.”

    To use the feature, just go to dropbox.com/requests to send out requests. It’s currently available to Dropbox basic and Pro users, but will be released to business customers in the next few weeks, we’re told.

    The FAQ has a basic walkthrough for the feature in case you have any trouble.

    Images via Dropbox

  • Dropbox For Business Makes Life Easier For IT Teams

    Dropbox announced some updates to Dropbox for Business, which should make things a little easier for IT teams in the administration, security, and integration areas.

    For one, they’ve added tiered admin roles. There are three tiers: Team admin, User management admin, and support admin. The idea is that day-to-day responsibilities can be delegated by having different roles assigned to each admin.

    Team admins have the ability to set team-wide security and sharing permissions as well as create admins and manage members. They have all available admin permissions. This is the only tier that can set admins or change roles. There has to be at least one Team Admin on an account.

    User management admins can add and remove team members, manage groups, and view a team’s activity feed. Support admins can manage passwords and basic account security as well as create a team member activity log. They can also contact Dropbox support about restoring deleted files, helping team members locked out of two-step authentication, etc.

    You can get a deeper look at all of this here.

    Also new is an enterprise installer, which lets admins automate Dropbox for Business deployment remotely to any Windows desktop machine. You can learn more about running this here.

    Regarding security and API improvements, a post by Rob Baesman on the Dropbox for Business blog says:

    Security is always top of mind for us and our customers. Two of our newest additions continue to put the security of your company’s data at the forefront. Our recent ISO 27018 certification makes us one of the first cloud service providers to achieve the emerging global standard for user privacy and data protection. And admins can now more easily require two-step verification to better protect account access.

    To integrate Dropbox with your existing systems even further, we’re extending the Dropbox for Business API with new capabilities for shared folders. Several industry-leading data migration and DLP providers — including Adallom, CloudLock, Elastica, Mover, Netskope, and SkySync — have begun building integrations to help admins take advantage of this new functionality. “As organizations continue migrating to cloud apps like Dropbox to enable greater employee agility and productivity, IT needs to have visibility and control over content stored in the cloud to ensure the security of sensitive business data,” said Rick Holden, VP of business development and alliances, Netskope. “The new Dropbox shared folder API allows us to better integrate our two services, giving IT peace of mind and affording employees greater flexibility in how they do their jobs.”

    In addition to all of this, Dropbox announced the integration of Dropbox for Business with Active Directory with a new Active Directory Connector, which has been released in beta to select customers. We should be hearing more about that in the near future.

    Image via Dropbox

  • Dropbox Finally Lets You Comment on Shared Files

    It just got easier to collaborate on your shared Dropbox files.

    The company has just enabled comments on shared files – a feature you’ve probably used plenty of times inside Google Drive.

    “Whether you’re collaborating on a business proposal or putting together a vacation itinerary, working with multiple people can be difficult. It can involve lots of back and forth conversations, scattered across email threads and chat windows. And in the process, feedback can get lost and it can take ages to get everyone on the same page. Today we’re simplifying that process. With comments, you can now have conversations around Dropbox files, both on the files you own and the files people share with you,” says Dropbox.

    Comments will let you @mention people, who will receive email notifications. You’ll also receive email notifications when people comment on your file.

    Of course, all of this is optional. If you own a file, you can turn off comments altogether. You can also turn of notifications, if they get pesky.

    Dropbox for Business users have had access to commenting for a little while now, but this is open to all Dropbox users. Right now it’s only on the web – but mobile support for comments is on the way.

    Image via Dropbox

  • Dropbox and Microsoft Let You Edit Office Files From The Browser

    Last fall, Microsoft and Dropbox partnered up on Office integration. Now, the companies are taking their partnership a little further. The two announced a new integration that allows users to edit their Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents in Dropbox using Office Online on the web.

    “This means that users don’t need the desktop versions of Microsoft Office, and can even use a computer that isn’t their own to edit their Office docs in Dropbox,” a spokesperson for Dropbox explained in an email. “Building on the Dropbox and Microsoft strategic partnership announced last November, users can also open and edit Office documents on iOS and Android devices, and officially use Dropbox on Windows Phones and tablets.”

    “With over 35 billion Office documents stored in Dropbox, Microsoft and Dropbox have teamed up to make collaboration seamless across phones, tablets, and the web, making Dropbox the best place to get work done from any web browser,” they added.

    When you go to Office Online, you’ll see the option to add your Dropbox account:

    Once you add the account, you can navigate and open files on Dropbox right from Office Online like so:

    Here’s what using Word Online to edit documents in Dropbox looks like:

    You can also access this same integration from Dropbox itself in the web browser. It will let you access Office Online directly from the file you’re viewing. Do so by clicking “Open” when you’re previewing a Word, PowerPoint, or Excel file.

    All Dropbox and Office Online users have access to the new integration starting right away.

    Last week, Dropbox announced new web previews that look better, load faster, and add functionality. More on that here.

    Images via Microsoft/Dropbox

  • Dropbox Launches New API For Businesses

    Dropbox Launches New API For Businesses

    Dropbox announced a new API for businesses, which will enable them to integrate the Dropbox Platform into their own IT processes.

    “Already 100,000 companies rely on Dropbox for Business to securely store and share even their most important company information, including major organizations like Hyatt, News Corp, and MIT,” says Dropbox’s Ilya Fushman. “Many of them also use the Dropbox Platform — which offers integrations with more than 300,000 apps — to support custom workflows.”

    “The API builds on the power of the Dropbox Platform by giving developers access to the team-level functionality of Dropbox for Business, empowering admins to deploy and manage business-critical applications for their team,” Fushman adds. “It’s especially useful for enterprise customers, as Dropbox for Business now fits even more seamlessly into their existing third-party solutions.”

    The company announced a bunch of launch partners, which have integrations that enable companies to do a lot of things. These include: Guidance and Nuix for eDiscovery and legal hold; Splunk, Domo, and General Audit Tool for security information and event management (SIEM) and analytics; CirroSecure, CloudLock, Elastica, Netskope, and Skyhigh Networks for Data loss prevention (DLP); Dell Data Protection, nCrypted Cloud, and Sookasa for Digital rights management (DRM); Centrify, Meldium, Microsoft Azure AD, Okta, OneLogin, and Ping Identity for Identity management & single sign-on (SSO); Mover and SkySync for data migration and on-premises backup; and others. More details on these here.

    More on implementing the API can be found here. Dropbox also has a webinar scheduled for later this month, which will take a dive into what you can do with it.

    Last week saw the integration of DropBox into MIcrosoft Office applications.

    Image via Dropbox

  • Microsoft Office, Dropbox Integrations Arrive

    Earlier this month, Dropbox and Microsoft announced a partnership, which would see Dropbox integrations with Microsoft Office on phones, tablets, and the web. Dropbox announced on Tuesday that the integrations are now here.

    Users can access Dropbox from Office apps, edit Office files directly from Dropbox (and sync them across devices), and share new or edited files from the Office apps using Dropbox’s sharing functionality.

    Dropbox’s Matthew Jaffe writes in a blog post, “The new Dropbox and Microsoft Office integrations are here! Now it’s easy to work on the Office files you’ve stored in Dropbox even when you’re on the go — you can edit them from the Dropbox app, and access them directly from the Office apps. The new features are available today for Android phone and iOS users.”

    “To get started, make sure your Dropbox app is up to date on your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone, then open any Office doc, spreadsheet, or presentation in your Dropbox. Tap the new Edit icon (shown above) to start editing in the latest Office apps. When you’re done, your changes will be saved back to Dropbox automatically.”

    More on the features here.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple & Other Tech Companies Call For Government Surveillance Reform

    About a year ago, the Reform Government Surveillance coalition was formed. Today, it includes AOL, Apple, Drobpbox, Evernote, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo.

    The companies have since maintained a website on the issue, and have now penned an open letter to the U.S. Senate as the USA Freedom Act comes up for a vote.

    The companies say the world’s governments need to address practices and laws regulating government surveillance of individuals and access to their information. They’re urging the Senate to pass the bill, which they say protects national security and “reaffirms America’s commitment to the freedoms we all cherish”.

    The letter says:

    The legislation prevents the bulk collection of Internet metadata under various authorities. The bill also allows for transparency about government demands for user information from technology companies and assures that the appropriate oversight and accountability mechanisms are in place.

    Since forming the Reform Government Surveillance coalition last year, our companies have continued to invest in strengthening the security of our services and increasing transparency. Now, the Senate has the opportunity to send a strong message of change to the world and encourage other countries to adopt similar protections.

    Passing the USA Freedom Act, however, does not mean our work is finished. We will continue to work with Congress, the Administration, civil liberties groups and governments around the world to advance essential reforms that we set forth in a set of principles last year.

    Such reforms include: preventing government access to data without proper legal process; assuring that providers are not required to locate infrastructure within a country’s border; promoting the free flow of data across borders; and avoiding conflicts among nations through robust, principled, and transparent frameworks that govern lawful requests for data across jurisdictions.

    Now is the time to move forward on meaningful change to our surveillance programs. We encourage you to support the USA Freedom Act.

    More from the coalition here.

    Image via Facebook, Ustream

  • Microsoft, Dropbox Partner On Office Integration

    Microsoft and Dropbox announced a strategic partnership, which will see Dropbox integration with Microsoft Office on phones, tablets, and the web. As the announcement notes, there are already over 35 billion Office files being hosted by Dropbox.

    Users will be able to access Dropbox from Office apps, edit Office files directly from Dropbox (and sync them across devices), and share new or edited files from the Office apps using Dropbox’s sharing functionality.

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, “In our mobile-first and cloud-first world, people need easier ways to create, share and collaborate regardless of their device or platform. Together, Microsoft and Dropbox will provide our shared customers with flexible tools that put them at the center for the way they live and work today.”

    Dropbox CEO and co-founder Drew Houston added, “People around the world have embraced Office and Dropbox to empower the way they live and work today. Our partnership with Microsoft will make it easier than ever to collaborate seamlessly across these platforms, giving people the freedom to get more done.”

    The new functionality will be included in upcoming updates to the Office apps for iOS and Android in the next few weeks. Web integration will come in the first half of next year. Interestingly, Windows Phone and Windows tablet platforms are taking a back seat to iOS and Android as well, with integration to happen on those in the coming months.

    The features will be available to all Office users with a Dropbox account. Dropbox for Business users will require an Office 365 subscription.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Dropbox: We Were Not Hacked

    Dropbox: We Were Not Hacked

    According to reports, hundreds of Dropbox usernames and passwords were leaked online as a preview to a larger alleged leak of 7 million accounts.

    As The Next Web reports, a thread appeared on reddit pointing to files with the leaked account details, saying, “Here is another batch of Hacked Dropbox accounts from the massive hack of 7,000,000 accounts. To see plenty more, just search on [redacted] for the term Dropbox hack. More to come, keep showing your support.”

    According to Dropbox, it hasn’t been hacked, and any such account details have been obtained from third-party services. The company addressed the situation on its blog, saying that it wasn’t hacked:

    Recent news articles claiming that Dropbox was hacked aren’t true. Your stuff is safe. The usernames and passwords referenced in these articles were stolen from unrelated services, not Dropbox. Attackers then used these stolen credentials to try to log in to sites across the internet, including Dropbox. We have measures in place to detect suspicious login activity and we automatically reset passwords when it happens.

    Attacks like these are one of the reasons why we strongly encourage users not to reuse passwords across services. For an added layer of security, we always recommend enabling 2 step verification on your account.

    In a update to the post, it added:

    A subsequent list of usernames and passwords has been posted online. We’ve checked and these are not associated with Dropbox accounts.

    Long story short, it’s probably a good time to reset your passwords across the various online services you use, and to make them all different this time.

    Image via Dropbox

  • Dropbox Pro Gets New Pricing, Features

    Dropbox announced that it is now offering a single plan for Dropbox Pro at $9.99 per month for 1 TB of space. Previously, it would have cost $500 per year for half of that space. Now it will cost you about $120 for all of it.

    They’ve also added some additional features including new sharing controls and safeguards for lost devices.

    “Simple collaboration is one of the reasons people choose Dropbox Pro, but we’ve heard you ask for more ways to protect the stuff you share,” says Dropbox’s ChenLi Wang. “That’s why we’re bringing new sharing controls to Dropbox Pro.”

    There are passwords and expirations for shared links as well as view-only permissions for shared folders.

    “Remote wipe lets you delete your Dropbox files from a lost or stolen device while keeping them safely backed up in Dropbox,” explains Wang. “For example, if you’ve ever left your laptop on a plane, you’re not just worried about the laptop — you’re worried about the stuff that’s on it.

    If you’re already using Dropbox Pro, you’ll be automatically upgraded within the next couple days.

    Image via Dropbox

  • Dropbox for Android Gets Better At Search, Adds Document Previews

    It appears to be a good day for Android users in terms of getting better search features in third-party apps. As reported earlier, Tumblr has improved its search experience on Android. Now, Dropbox has launched an update for its Android app, adding document previews and a redesigned search experience.

    The company says it’s now quicker and easier to get to any of the stuff in your Dropbox. It now includes the ability to search in specific folders, or in your entire Dropbox. It keeps track of recent searches, and amkes typehead suggestions as you type in your search.

    “To make sure you don’t miss a thing, Dropbox highlights the names of matching files or folders as you type your search,” the company says in a blog post.

    “You can now instantly preview any Word document, PowerPoint presentation, or PDF in your Dropbox straight from your Android device,” it also notes. “This means you can view, scroll, and zoom in on your travel docs without needing to switch out of the Dropbox app.”

    In addition to these features, the app will now let you set view-only permissions on shared folders.

    The update is rolling out on Google Play this afternoon.

    Image via Dropbox

  • Instagram’s Lead Designer Is Leaving for Dropbox

    It looks like Dropbox is about to get a new look – or at least a significant refresh.

    As expected, Instagram’s lead designer Tim Van Damme has announced that he is leaving the company – and his last day will be Friday. After that, he’ll be heading to Dropbox in early August.

    “The past 18 months were some of the best of my life, both personally and professionally. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds in this business, on an app that transformed the way people interact with each other every single day, and also made a lot of new friends. But it’s time to move on, time to solve a different set of problems,” says Van Damme.

    Van Damme first joined Instagram at the beginning of 2012. Before that, he served as an iOS designer at Gowalla.

    Last week, Dropbox kicked off their first-ever developer conference. At that conference, the company announced that they now have over 175 million users who are syncing over a billion files every day. That means that the company has nearly double its user base in the past 8 months.

    “Dropbox is a fascinating company. It provides value to a wide range of people, not just those who build things,” he says.

  • Dropbox Hits 175 Million Users, Launches New Developer Tools, Yahoo Mail Integration For Android

    Dropbox Hits 175 Million Users, Launches New Developer Tools, Yahoo Mail Integration For Android

    Dropbox kicked off its first ever developer conference today. The company took the opportunity to reveal that it now has 175 million users, and over a billion files synced every day.

    According to TechCrunch, Dropbox only had 100 million users just this past November, so the growth thing is going pretty well. And today’s news should help

    At the conference, Dropbox announced a new suite of tools for developers.

    “It’s a challenge for developers to provide an amazing user experience across many different platforms and devices,” the company says. “Our Sync and Core APIs already take care of syncing files and folders, but as people use mobile apps more and more, a lot of their stuff doesn’t really look like a file at all. It could be anything — settings, contacts, to-do list items, or the latest doodle you drew.”

    Now there’s a new Datastore API, which the company says it’s using to “move beyond files” and provide a new way to store and sync app data.

    “When you use an app built with datastores your data will be up-to-date across all devices whether you’re online or offline,” says DropBox. “Imagine a task-tracking app that works on both your iPhone and the web. If it’s built with the Datastore API, you can check off items from your phone during a cross-country flight and add new tasks from your computer and Dropbox will make sure the changes don’t clobber each other.”

    The company also announced the new Chooser and Saver drop-ins. The former lets people access files in their Dropbox from the web and mobile apps, and the latter lets users save files to Dropbox in one click. These are already being taken advantage of by Yahoo Mail, Shutterstock and Mailbox.

    Yahoo announced Dropbox integration for Yahoo Mail (whose redesign is currently getting torn apart by users) back in April.

    Today, at Dropbox’s conference, Yahoo announced new Dropbox integration for Yahoo Mail on Android in an effort to make it easier for users to send files while on the go.

    Dropbox for Yahoo

    “In the app, start a new email, tap the attachment icon and choose ‘Share from Dropbox,’” explains Yahoo in a blog post. “If you’ve already linked your Dropbox account, then you can start choosing files to share right away. If you don’t have an account, just sign up from within the app.”

    For more from the conference and about the company’s plans check this pair of in-depth pieces from Wired.

  • Dropbox Announces Dropbox For Business With Single Sign-On

    Dropbox announced “Dropbox for Business” on Wednesday. The company says that it’s making a lot of changes to make Dropbox better for companies of all sizes, so it’s rebranding “Dropbox For Teams” as “Dropbox For Business”.

    One of the upcoming features is single sign-on (SSO). Dropbox’s Anand Subramani explains:

    SSO works behind the scenes to let users sign in just once to a central identity provider, like Active Directory, and securely access all their business apps, like Dropbox. With SSO, companies can put their existing trusted identity provider in charge of the authentication process.

    For users, SSO means ease — one fewer password to remember and one fewer step to get to your work. Once logged in to your system, there’s no need to sign in to Dropbox separately. For IT admins, SSO means additional security and administrative management. Single sign-on gives you complete ownership of the authentication process and works with your company’s existing password policies. It also easily ties into the existing Dropbox provisioning and de-provisioning API to provide further Active Directory integration.

    The company is working with various identity providers on single sign-on. These include Ping Identity, Okta, OneLogin, Centrify, and Symplified. The feature is coming next month. It will take advantage of the industry standard Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML).

    Dropbox claims to be used by 2 million businesses and 95% of the Fortune 500.

  • Yahoo Mail Gets Dropbox Integration

    Yahoo has partnered with Dropbox to integrate Dropbox’s storage solution into Yahoo Mail.

    “By bringing Dropbox to Yahoo! Mail, it’ll now be easier for you to send, receive, share and manage your attachments,” says Yahoo in a blog post.

    Dropbox’s Joshua Jenkins says, “Email attachments can be tricky: they’ve got file size limits, you can’t keep them updated, and when you add people to a thread, attachments are the first to get left behind. he Yahoo! Mail team decided to fix this—by integrating with Dropbox!”

    “Since this integration is Dropbox-powered, you can even send that big album of vacation pics without worrying about the 25 MB file limit,” he says. “Plus, it’s easy to save any photo, video, or doc in your Yahoo! Mail straight to your Dropbox, where you can get to it from anywhere.”

    If you don’t already use Dropbox, you can click on any attachment in Yahoo Mail, select “Save All,” then “Save to Dropbox,” and it will give you instructions for setting up an account. Otherwise, you can just start using it.

    You can send new attachments from Dropbox in Yahoo Mail by selecting the dropdown next to the paperclip icon, and hit “Share from Dropbox”. For large files, you can drag and drop the attachment into email, but send it through Dropbox.

    The integration is available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

  • Kim Dotcom Says Mega Is Already Catching Up To Dropbox

    Mega launched over the weekend to much fanfare. The new file sharing site from Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom already reached over 1 million users within a day, and it’s still growing. For now, Dotcom is taking a break from the public eye, but he’s still tweeting away all kinds of stats about his new startup.

    In a series of tweets from about 10 hours ago, Dotcom announces some early stats for Mega. The biggest surprise is definitely how fast Mega has grown since its launch. We know that the site has over 1 million registered users, but it’s obviously higher than that now. Dotcom isn’t sharing the exact number, however, because he says he can’t believe it.

    Although we can’t see how many registered users the site has, we can see that it’s growing astronomically thanks to a tweet from Dotcom that compares Mega’s traffic to established file sharing service Dropbox.

    He also tweeted out that Mega is now the largest .co.nz site on the Internet. I’m betting the folks in Gabon were now wishing they let Dotcom keep his original me.ga domain name.

    Of course, the launch has not been without some issues. The ever increasing demand for Mega is causing the site to load slowly for some while others are having issues with uploading. Dotcom is aware of the issues and is promising to get everything under control:

    Another issue Dotcom now faces are reports that Mega’s much hyped security and encryption are not as protective as he claims. He says that he he will be addressing those issues soon:

    Mega has already proven to be a success, but how long will it last? TorrentFreak reported yesterday that anti-piracy group StopFileLockers is already attempting to shut off Mega’s revenue streams. Similar groups are probably exploring their options in regards to Mega as well. Dotcom claims his new site is legal, but the media industry will no doubt find something to complain about.

  • Dropbox Hits 100 Million Users, Shows No Signs Of Slowing

    Dropbox announced today that it has surpassed 100 million users, who are saving a billion files every 24 hours.

    “Since the beginning, Dropbox users have remained at the heart of the company’s mission,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews. “People from around the world have shown countless and unique ways to use Dropbox to simplify their lives every day. As Dropbox continues to grow and innovate, the team is renewing their commitment to their users who have made Dropbox what it is.”

    Dropbox also revealed that it now has paying users in over 200 countries.

    “Once upon a time, Dropbox had its humble beginnings in a Boston train station when I forgot my USB stick at home. We’re still unsure if it was fate or fluke, but one thing’s stayed the same all these years: each of us has a unique reason for using Dropbox,” Drew Houston writes on the Drobbox blog. “100 million reasons later, we’re still building and improving Dropbox not only for ourselves, but also for all of you and your awesome stories that continue to inspire us.”

    “Among these is Coach Stringfellow in Utah,” Houston adds. “High school football’s a big deal — while there are the lights, crowds, and cheerleaders, less visible are the sweat and tears needed to build a great team. Coach Stringfellow and his players use Dropbox to study game films and scouting reports on their own terms. And because Dropbox keeps everyone connected, the Bountiful Braves have the edge they need to play stronger and smarter.”

    There’s a video about the coach in the blog post, where the company calls upon users to share their own stories about their reasons for using Dropbox, for the chance to win 10GB for life (if it’s in the top 100) or 100GB (if it’s in the top 10).

  • Facebook Groups Get Dropbox Integration

    Facebook Groups Get Dropbox Integration

    Dropbox and Facebook have announced a new integration, where Facebook Group users will be able to share stuff from their Dropbox directly with group members on Facebook.

    A spokesperson for Dropbox tells WebProNews that the partnership builds upon its “mission to create easier ways for people to be more productive, collaborate, and access their life’s work whenever they need it, whether from mobile devices or multiple computers.”

    Dropbox on Facebook

    Dropbox on Facebook

    “Now you can share notes with your study group, add the latest game schedule to your basketball team’s group, or post a birthday video to your family’s group at lightning speed from wherever you are,” says Dropbox’s Chris Varenhorst. “Just like other posts to Facebook Groups, people can like or comment on anything you share from within the group. And if you make any edits to a file you’ve shared, the group will get an update automatically!”

    When users link their Dropbox accounts to their Facebook accounts, they can search through Dropbox and select what they want to share. Docs, photos, and videos shared from Dropbox will show up on the group’s wall.

    The integration is rolling out today. If you can’t see it yet, you should be able to shortly.