Drop.io - Private File Sharing

A new file and media sharing service out of NYC called Drop.io launched its alpha late last week. It is decidedly different in approach than the other file sharing services currently available. I sat down with founders Darshan Somashekar and Sam Lessin at their office in NYC.

I asked for an overview of the Drop.io service and Darshan replied with, "with Drop.io we stripped media sharing online to its essence. We took out personal registration and the entire concept of 'accounts'. There is no search, and no network. In as little as two clicks you can create as many separate drops as you want, making it the easiest way for people to privately upload and share virtually anything with just the people they want." I think of it as semi-private to private sharing as the only way to find a drop is to know the specific URL and, if set, password.

There are many applications for Drop.io. The one that immediately stands out to me is work collaboration space. Need to show files to a client? Use Drop.io. Or if you are working in a team and need to share files back and forth, Drop.io offers a better, cleaner, quicker interface than say DropSend or YouSendIt. Clients and coworkers can email files into a specific drop making it seamless to the client.

Sam noted a social example of how the site has been used when a test user set up a drop before going on a closed group trip. The user told the participants where the drop was and everyone on the trip emailed and uploaded in media during/after the trip all to one private place.

I can see companies using Drop.io for presentations as it will house all of the needed files in an easy location for a specific time period. Families can use the tool to categorize trip memories for other family members, or even as a really easy blogging tool that the whole family can update and view.

Drop.io handles almost any file type, Web links, notes and emails. Audio and video are supported and PDFs are viewable within the Drop.io site. Sam said that other document types (word/excel/etc) are coming soon and also commented, "Some sites only support specific types of media. Drop.io converts pictures, video, audio, and documents, to web friendly formats and whatever we don’t know how to convert we will just store ". I created several drops and found it easy-to-use and non-technical. The non-technical part is important if Drop.io wants to gain mainstream acceptance. You can setup a password to use with the drop and also an admin password for making changes to the drop after it has been created.

Check out the official sample drop and my test CenterNetworks drop.

The business model that Sam and Darshan discussed is based around one time micropayments upgrading ‘drops’. Upgrades to 1 gig of space and other premium options will be available for a small fee per drop. They hint that there are many more upgrades and customizations that they will be releasing over time.

What I would like to see is a variety of social sharing options. For example a Facebook application to share with the friends you want to. A button to direct message on Twitter. I get that drop.io is not for sharing to the world, but I still need an easy way of sharing the drop link that I create.

Darshan and Sam have provided CN with ten free premium upgrade codes. Leave your information in the comments (do not leave your email in the comment, just in the email field) and I will send you an upgrade code.

Sam left me with the following, "We've really just kicked off - we'd say this is an ‘Alpha’ launch, but the term has basically lost all meaning anyway. We would love everyone to play around with the site and send us their thoughts/any bugs. We are going to be refining the site directly out of the user feedback. And if you're a Ruby programmer, we'd love to hear from you – we have some interesting stuff in the oven."