Box.net, Next Gen Storage for the Masses?
School work, business proposals, universally accessible storage, data backup, important documents - there are many reasons why you might want to have secure online storage. Having all of your important files online is more convenient and safer than toting around a USB memory stick. A relatively new and revamped web service called Box.net plans to make online storage as easy as possible without skimping on the features. With 1GB of storage for free and up to 5GBs for a small fee, you can easily safekeep files and share them with contacts.
The Interface
Upon logging in for the first time, I immediately noticed the high quality design and coding backend. Rounded corners, diagonal lines, gradients, lively colors, playful icons - all things that a designer likes to see in Web 2.0 apps. Box.net has all of these. The root of your online storage space is dubbed “MyBox.” You can have as many folders and files within each directory as you wish, with the current directory address shown adjacent to the search box in the form of breadcrumbs.
Just below the breadcrumbs are some links for sorting your files by name, date or size as well as to create a new folder or upload files, which I’ll dwell on shortly. However, I want to take a look at the sidebar. The box.net designers really spent some time on creating the sidebar, making a space for tools at the top, with things like friends in My Network, Tags and Account Details resting below. The tools box easily allows you to create a new folder, upload files, switch between icon and list views as well as zip the current directory and download it.
People you have invited to join box.net automatically show up under My Network. You can remove and edit their info as needed, and minimize the window when your friends list gets too long. Just below My Network there is Tags. As you would expect, tags is a list of tags that you have applied to the files in your box. Tags can easily be applied to any file or folder by utilizing the right-click contextual menu. However, one thing I have noticed is that the right-click menus don’t appear in Apple’s Safari browser. I’m assuming this is in the works. Anyways, just right-click and select tags to bring up a nice Lightbox-powered tagging menu. Simply add relevant tags, click save and you will easily be able to find things later.
Not so keen on tagging? Don’t worry, the livesearch feature is rather impressive as well. Just start typing your search query in the search box on the left and results will start appearing in the main column as you do so. Click on the breadcrumbs to get back to where you were. As for downloading files, that can be done by individually clicking each file. Alternatively, you may want to download a whole batch of files. This is where box’s zipping feature comes in handy. Browse to the directory you want to zip and either click Zip Folder in the tools menu or right-click » zip folder. Once you initiate the zipping process, the file will automatically download. I don’t think there is a way to zip something within box and keep it on the server besides manually uploading it.
Uploading & Downloading
You can’t do anything if you don’t have any files on box.net. Uploading to your box can be done in two ways: manually adding files by browsing for them and selecting them individually via a file browser or a Java-powered drag and drop method. Both methods are easy enough to figure out and just as fast. When you upload you are given the option of what directory to upload to as well. You can also start uploading from within a specific directory by right-clicking and selecting upload files.
Downloading is as easy as clicking on a file. It will automatically start to download. This can also be done by accessing the menu by either clicking on the small triangle icon on each item or right-clicking. Currently, there is no way to download your entire MyBox directly, other than manually downloading each file. I have contacted Aaron, one of the Box.net founders, about the problem with attempting to zip the root MyBox directory. The download speeds are zippy, as you would expect with a web service that revolves around online storage.
Sharing
Box.net wouldn’t have such an edge on its competition if it were not for some of its unique file sharing features. Files can be shared in several basic ways. You can post files to your blog, however, only blogger, typepad and livejournal blogs are currently supported. Other than posting files on a blog, you can create public or private shares for your files and public shares for your directories. Right-click on a folder for example and select public share. You will be given a randomly created RSS feed and URL. Distribute the URL, or let box do that for you by emailing it, when you open it up you are greeted with a nicely designed page, equipped with feed icons, featuring your shared directories. You can disable this link whenever you want and you can keep an eye on what is shared since that file or directory will show a PUBLIC icon on it. 
A neat thing that I like is support for media files. If you share photos, you can view them in a gallery or if you share audio files, you can play them with a little media player - both very convenient. You can even find out how many people download the shared files using the Sharing tab. The second method for sharing files is the private share and is done on a contact by contact basis. 
You can activate the private share in the same way as the public share, through the right click menu but this time you need to provide it an email address of a friend or contact, presumably within your network. To the people with which you share files, they will see your privately shared files as a new folder in their MyBox directory, with the name of that folder being your user name. To distinguish it from other folders, these folders are blue and files within are marked with a SHARED icon. Privately shared files become immediately noticeable to the the receiver with a hard to miss blinking link to the new files displayed at the top.
Thoughts
Online storage is a volatile industry. Server space is at a premium these days. The only way Gmail is even able to cope with their outrageous offerings and large user base is by compressing their data. Assuming each person uses their ~2.5gigs of storage (not that anyone ever uses the entire thing, attachment size is limited to 10MB) with text, Google can compress that space to only a few hundred megabytes. However, with Box.net users are encouraged to store all types of data and media. Nothing will be compressed and that is a secret to why the service is so fast. New users can get 1GB of box space for free with paying users getting 5GB for $4.99 a month. I believe they have plans for a 15GB account as well. Given the state of the online storage industry, paying users get extra features for supporting the service. You can create sub-users with full or read/write only privileges as well as set their directory scope (how far they can snoop around). Box.net currently has a deal where if you refer 5 people, your account is automatically upgraded.
Box.net has been around since 2005 but has recently revamped their service. It is a complete 180: new features, an excellent design and funding to boot. Blogging maven Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, has been known to support box.net, which is currently under the management of founders Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith. When I first found out about box, I loved the idea. It’s not exactly the most original idea, heck Xdrive has been around since the beginning of the net, but I’m a sucker for great web design. As you might have been able to tell from the screenshots, I mainly use box to store all of my class files in one central place. One of my programming courses does not have a textbook, rather a ludicrous amount of PDFs. Box.net lets me access them from the library, student center, wherever I may be. If a friend in the same class needs to access those files as well, for example when working on a group programming assignment, no biggie. I’ll just publicly share the folder and instant message everyone the URL. When I’m working on a program, classmates can quickly check the share’s RSS feed to see if I completed the button handler C file for our GameBoy Advance project. However, you will have to stick around to see if box changes. Several key features are still in the works and could potentially change the entire user experience. Sign up for a free box.net account with my referral invite link, play around and let me know what you think.
I actually am quite impressed with those nice media sharing capabilities. It’s like the box has everything you need to consume the file. What doesn’t impress me is the bandwith limitations. Ideally this would be a very attractive solution for those like me who want to host media files without having to worry about exceeding our bandwith limit. For serious uesrs, is 50GB a month enough?
I hear it’s good to have at least 500GB of transfer. Maybe I’m wrong…
As usual, good write up. What upgrade do you get when you refer people?
Paul,
Thanks for sharing your referral invite link. I used it get an account. Hopefully you’ll get something l33t in return!
I’ve been watching several of these free “on-line” storage sites for some time. I guess my biggest concern is security/privacy–what do they “really” do with the data. Probably nothing, but one never knows.
I really like that you touched on the fact that the files seem to be able to be shared in blogs. Since I haven’t purchased a domain/webspace hosting yet, having the potential ability to share files that can’t be found any longer could really enhance my blogging features. That was the deal-clincher for me on this one. I know there are some firefox extensions/etc that expand the usability of gMail for online file storage and transfers, but gMail (in my daily usage) is just for e-mail.
You did a great writeup. I can’t wait to get it out on the track for some hands-on testing!
Cheers!
Claus
Paul good for you on the technorati list, I like what you’re doing.
Great write-up Paul. Thanks for the heads up on Box.net. I’ve tried out a couple of the mass media storage services but haven’t had much luck with them. I’m hoping Box.net is what I’ve been looking for. Signed up and am gonna try it out now.
Neat idea. I bet they can find a niche market if they keep after it.
For a less slick interface (FTP), I have double the storage and 500gb transfer a month with 1and1 hosting. Plus two free domains.
not necessarily a 1and1 fanboy, but its the cheapest storage i’ve found.
Box.net seems to be a really great service and for a start 1 GB is also enough! I also like the idea of sharing files or link them to blogs.
Here is my invitation link, I wonder how my account will be upgraded: http://www.box.net/signup/
Thanks for the write up & referral link. I’ll definitely have to try this out, I’ve been searching for some storage alternatives.
Excellent write up Paul,
I did bite the dust during the early dotcom days. There was a service which was very well know and then one day I see that the service do not exist anymore. This is the issue I find with many of the free providers, they are not at all answerable as their ‘terms’ pages clearly states. I am now using this online
storage and do not mind paying a small fee as it is accountable.
I have recently invited 7 friends and requested them to sign up and they did it. Then quickly I got an upgrade to 5Gb premium account. Good.
Now today when I logged in I see that my account have been downgraded back to 1Gb free user? WTF???
My brand new premium user account lasted just less than two days (and it was supposed to last for 1 year…)
Sorry for my english but it’s not my native tongue.
For my purposes the 10mb upload limit on the free account makes the service a non-starter.
My interest was in using it to have powerpoint presentations available. Being visually oriented, the smallest of these is 112MB.
I used Xdrive when it first came out (and was free), but when they started charging the cumbersome interface made it not worth my while.
For my own purposes I will just keep using my webserver as ’round the world’ storage/access. Not as easy to use as Box.Net: but there is no upload size limit (of relevance).
The only use I can think of for Box.Net for any semi-computer literate people is for text-based file-sharing, and the uploading of low-resolution digital pictures whilst on vacation.
Other than that, the expense/benefit/ease-of-use ratio would favor doing as I do: simply using your webserver.
I had a security glitch while using box.net service. I was uploading some files into my account using the Java mode. The screen seemed to be freezed. So I pressed the Enter button. Bang! I was in someone’s elses account. The poor guy’s account’s email was kaka_moon07@yahoo.com
I emailed to box.net but my email got bounced. So I don’t know if this security flaw has been fixed or not.
Thank you.
It is always interesting that those experts always miss points. Paul, you’ve seen nothing yet if you have not looked at DriveHQ.com. I recommend you look at:
http://www.drivehq.com/downloads/downloads.aspx
the nice screenshots and FTP demo.
Hey, I don’t work for DriveHQ, but I have been using their service for half a year; and they have never disappointed me. The truth is Box.net is for kids; and DriveHQ is for real professionals. see my post there why you guys have all missed points:
http://www.drivehq.com/Bbs/getmsg.aspx?bbsID=1005&msg_id=279201&ref_id=0
I am planning to do my own blog now…
Hi, you can also try IBackup for Windows for secure backups of important data. IBackup has been around for some time and from my own experience I recommend it for fast and easy backups and restores. PC World recently rated it as the ‘best all-around backup service’ and UK’s best selling Internet magazine Webuser has selected it for the ‘webuser gold award’.
These accolades stem from the fact that IBackup does fast and efficient incremental and compressed backups. Using their easy-to-use wizards, you can easily do interactive backups, restores of your precious files and folders and schedule backups and restores. You can backup data with ‘mirroring,’ which maintains the absolute path of the source files. You don’t have to worry about security, as all data transfer is encrypted with 128-bit SSL encryption. There is an option to backup from file snapshots, which is a history of the files stored previously. You can even restore from these older or historical versions of files.
Unlike Box.net, IBackup for Windows is compatible with Windows 98 and above. IBackup accounts are compatible with most FTP clients on most platforms thus providing a powerful flexible tool to transfer files. You can access your data in IBackup with ILite while you are on the move, using handheld devices such as Blackberry, PocketPC and Treo. With Box, there is no option to do backups of MS Exchange and MS AQL server databases and critical system related components.
The coolest thing about IBackup for Windows is that you can ‘map’ your online account as a ‘local drive’ on your computer and work on the data as you normally do. For this you will have to download and install IDrive. With IDrive share files or folders with others for collaborative access. All you need to do is just create a sharable links (SSL enabled) for the file/folder and email the links. For the shared resource, you can add password protection, set a maximum number of downloads, write enable them, set the number of days at the end of which it will expire etc.
You can ‘privately share’ data with another IBackup user with the help of Web-Manager. In other words, an IBackup user can instantly share selected data with another user. This feature can also be turned off whenever required. You can use Web-Manager to create folders, rename, move and delete files or folders.
IBackup has options to store and backup multimedia files. With IDrive Multimedia you can move all the multimedia files to your IBackup account, create playlists of files and play them using any media player. Web-Manager can automatically sense the presence of images in your account and display an image gallery for you.
Hi, i used Box.net that offers just a 1GB free with 1Gb file size limit. Not a lot for me. I found instead Memopal (www.memopal.com), that gives you 5Gb free and no size limit. Much better.