1. Introduction for big file-sharing websites
You’ve probably heard of the big file-sharing websites out there, but which one is the best?
If you have been using computers for the past few years, you’ve probably downloaded some shareware programs like WinRAR or WinZip (or you may have used them on the fly). These can be incredibly useful and they make life easier. However, in a world where we are all going to be sharing files on our devices, these programs are useless.
Only now do I realize I was never going to use WinRAR!, but that there’s still an old Windows-compatible version of it available for free download. What a waste!
So anyway, today I’m back with another article about file-sharing websites. This time I’m talking about one of the biggest file-sharing sites around: Pastebin.
What is Pastebin?
Plainly put, it’s a web site that lets people create and edit public documents (essentially text files) for free storage and distribution online. There are two kinds of users who use Pastebin: content creators and researchers. A content creator uploads a document like an article or blog post; then a user can subscribe to the website and get notified when new content is available; then they can start downloading it. The same is true for researchers who publish their findings on research papers or scientific journals (in their own words).
A researcher can find interesting documents in the public domain by subscribing to some kind of repository such as Google Scholar (which is basically an academic database), or by using some sort of keyword search engine such as Google Scholar Search or Scopus (which indexes millions of databases). They then download the document from their own computer, print it out and read it later at home.
How does this help content creators? Well, users get distracted when browsing other websites and don’t stay focused on what they’re doing if they’re downloading stuff from one place instead of another—so there’s an incentive for sites like Pastebin to centralise all their content so that they can all stay focused on what they do best: uploading/editing and publishing stuff!
How does this help researchers? Well, as always with any form of research there are researchers who think differently than others—some think that we should be publishing everything at once instead of in batches—and more importantly there are also researchers who think differently than most others about how we should share our findings online. But generally speaking there are two kinds of users here: those who need information quickly (like publishers) and those who want information.
2. The Pros and Cons of Dropbox
Dropbox is a great product. It is fast, reliable and inexpensive. The problem is that its value comes from its fees — the fact that it costs money to use.
The best file-sharing website (and Dropbox isn’t it) should be free. It should be a nice, simple service to share files with your friends — something like what Google Drive is for file sharing, only with less bloat and more simplicity.
A couple of weeks ago we asked our readers to submit their suggestions for the best file-sharing website; we received well over 1000 entries (yay!). The ones you see below are some of our favorites:
Pixlr:
This one captures the essence well: It lets you quickly create pix in any format (JPEG, PNG, GIF or BMP). You can also add text or custom images using a simple drag-and-drop interface. Pixlr has a lot of features as well as being easy to use and intuitive.
It’s not too difficult to set up and works on your computer, tablet or phone too. Here’s an example image created with Pixlr’s new “Create for Facebook” button:
Hootsuite:
Hootsuite makes it extremely easy to publish & promote your content from anywhere by simply adding a few lines of code to any web page so that you can easily share content from anywhere on any device via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (without needing additional software). This makes Hootsuite perfect for social media marketers who want to get their content into the hands of their followers without having to build their own website or even host their own social media platforms themselves! Here’s an example of Hootsuite on Facebook’s Home Page.
3. The Pros and Cons of Google Drive
It is no secret that Google Drive has a good, solid product. In fact, it can be argued that they have the best of both worlds: a great product and not having to spend time and money building their own.
The problem is, Google Drive was already the best file sharing website. Why, then, should you use it over Dropbox when there’s no real difference between them?
Because Dropbox is better for every kind of file you want to share (weeks in advance of Google Drive‘s release). Dropbox has proven itself as a great way to securely back up all kinds of data from your computer or mobile device (like photos from your vacation or documents from your spreadsheet). They also have a really cool new features that allows users to share files with other users via a file-sharing network (Dropbox has been doing this since 2012). They are also the number one choice among business users for managing large amounts of data securely. And their pricing model is more comparable to Google Drive than Dropbox — so if you are already using them as well, you don’t need any additional software/services when moving your data over to Google Drive. So why would you switch?
There are probably some downsides to using Dropbox instead of Google Drive — being more limited with the storage they offer (they only support 256mb) and the fact that they charge by the gigabyte rather than per file (this means having higher storage costs), but we already mentioned these in our post on why everyone should use Dropbox instead of Google Drive. So if you want an easy way to safely back up files like photos or documents without paying $10/GB or $20/GB monthly for storage on top of Gmail or Office 365, then I recommend using Dropbox.
4. The Pros and Cons of OneDrive
What do you want to do with your files? If you’re using a personal data storage service, chances are that one of the top three things is to share files with your friends and family.
What kind of file sharing service do you want? Some data isn’t going to be shared. For example, photos are private unless you give them to someone who is willing to publish them. This stuff is in the category of “I don’t need it”. The big difference between us and other providers is that we can share anything regardless of its content.
We have a great solution for this problem: OneDrive, a file-sharing service that allows you to store everything wherever you want on any device (iPad or laptop, desktop or phone) and sync it across devices at any time.
OneDrive lets people share anything online—from music and video, to documents and spreadsheets—with anyone else who uses the same OneDrive account. It also lets people keep their files secure with automatic encryption; keep your files free from viruses and malware; and automatically backup your files in case of disaster or loss. You can also use OneDrive in conjunction with Office 365 (Microsoft Office).
OneDrive works across desktops, laptops, tablets (including iPads), smartphones, game consoles like Xbox 360s (and even other Windows PCs) as well as iPhones & Android phones.
It takes about 15 seconds for the software to recognize your account information when you sign in—the same as if you had just signed into an existing OneDrive account—and then sync all files stored on your computer at once over their entire online space within a few minutes of signing in again. You can even delete individual files from the cloud if they are no longer needed later on or if they have changed since they were created on disk so long ago; just click “Delete” from File Explorer’s main menu bar at any time without pressing “return”.
In addition to saving all kinds of file types such as images, text documents, music tracks, etc., when using OneDrive for storage/syncing purposes, it also enables users to keep up-to-date versions of their entire digital life by restoring deleted items for free if needed after losing access during a crash or other unexpected event(s).
5. The Pros and Cons of iCloud
There are a lot of file-sharing services out there, but in my opinion, the best one is iCloud.
There are probably a lot of benefits to using iCloud. The first is that you can access all your files from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection and your data has not been modified in any way (and also because you save files to a centralized location where they will be automatically restored if lost).
For me, the most important benefit is that iCloud syncs all your data across all your devices. If I’m away from my computer and I come back, it will all be there — the photos I took when I was away, my notes that were taken when I was away. You can also send a message to someone and if they reply with a message on their device, it will be received on yours too. In some cases, this syncing may even make something called “geofencing” unnecessary: you don’t need to go outside your house to send pictures of your kids or post something on Pinterest; just go outside and click “send” from within Safari or Chrome.
One thing that may come in handy is the ability to upload files directly from iTunes or another app like iPhoto (or another app which provides native support for this functionality — such as Photobucket) — even if it doesn’t have native support for this functionality yet (such as Dropbox).
However, this functionality may not work with every file type; for example, images cannot be uploaded directly through iPhoto (but they are easily uploaded via Preview), so this is useful only when uploading an image file rather than an image itself.
Another thing that comes in handy is the “one-click sharing” feature that allows you to share a link without having to rely on third party apps and without having to actually install anything on your device (although it does require you run iTunes from within iTunes). This allows you one-click sharing of content by other people who might not use third party apps for sharing content — which could be useful for remote employees who want to share their blogs with clients but don’t want them installed on their own devices because they aren’t necessarily located at their normal work location; or remote students who want their professor(s) access their materials when they get back home each day; etc. Another reason why this feature might come in handy is if someone else wants content that
6. Conclusion:
Which File-Sharing Website is the Best for You?
So, you’ve found a website that is good for sharing files — but the problem is, it asks you to upload things like MP3s, JPEGs and other file formats. You don’t want to do that. So what do you do?
The answer is: Sites like Dropbox or Box have made it easier for people to share files online (and also make it easy for them to find them again). But many people don’t realize that there are other ways to share files online besides using Dropbox or Box. One of those ways is through file-sharing services like Mega or Dropbox. Here is a link to a very thorough guide about which file sharing service(s) might be best for you (it does not include Google Drive).
The reason why some people use file-sharing sites like Dropbox and Box isn’t just because they are convenient; it is also because they offer features that make sharing files easier:
• Easy search: You can search by file name or by folder name. This makes finding your files much quicker than with the default Finder, and it also allows you to search in different directories at once.
Even if they are on different computers!
• Perfect backups: If you accidentally delete something important on your computer, Dropbox will keep your whole data safe until the next time you restore everything from their servers. And they will do this without any extra work from you — no complicated backup scripts!
• Easily accessible options: When in doubt about how to share a file, if all you need to do is drag and drop it into one of their folders, dropbox will show all of your available options without asking any questions. This means if there are two versions of the same document in different folders on your computer, you can share only one version without having to worry about copy-paste errors or conflicts with other programs. They even let users create unique distribution channels (like torrents) on top of this feature so that everyone who uses the service can have access to exactly the same content — no matter where they live or what kind of device they use!
If this sounds too good to be true, then welcome home: here’s how I make my living as an independent consultant so I can afford these features personally!
