For tech savvy folks: is Dropbox the best alternative for collaborative file sharing?

I think Google is near top notch. I mean, it’s next to e-mail. There’s Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Hangout. I heard a lot of new school business people partake in Google latest features.

Dropbox isn’t that bad though

If it’s just for getting it to people, then yes, Dropbox is extremely easy. Just set up an account, put it in your box, and then you can grab a link to share. e.g. Capybara.

Now, I couldn’t exactly tell from the link, you say ‘collaborative’, but do you actually need multiple people working on it at once? If so you can still do that with dropbox, but then everyone needs an account and the folder where it resides needs to be shared with everyone who wants in, and then you have to make sure not to have two people editing at once or it’ll get mad at you (it’ll work, but it’ll split it into two copies when they’re saved and conflict). Easier option there may be google docs. But if she just needs to have a link, dropbox is great.

Responding to @_Whitetigress’ points I haven’t used Drive much, so I can’t speak to that, but that would be the competitor to Dropbox. I can’t say I’ve used it much, I like Dropbox and have used it for a very long time and never seen the need to change, so I’d definitely vote for Dropbox but she’d probably want to check out both if that’s the feature set she wants.

No, there’s no need to have anyone else have direct edit power other than the originator. And you’re absolutely correct that it could lead to mass confusion. In retrospect, I could have chosen a better word than collaborative. All I meant was that anyone would have viewing capability.

So, do both Google Docs and Dropbox also have that same requirement as Box.com that a personal link is required to view the contents ?

I guess I was hoping for something that wouldn’t be so unwieldy as to require a separate link for each person but rather one which would be viewable by anyone desiring to.

There used to be a site called Posterous (now recently defunct) where someone could post just about anything, pics, text or whatever and anyone who knew the persons acct. name could view the contents.

It was elegantly simple and I really miss it now that its gone. All someone had to do was input my SN and dot posterous dot com and be able to view anything I put up there.

Hmm. Well, for dropbox you do need to have the link, but it’s not unique per viewer, once the account holder makes a link you can share it far and wide (that capybara pic above is in my dropbox, anyone who clicks that link is good).

@BhacSaylan

I just clicked on the link you left. Is that from your Dropbox acct.?

If it is then I’m a bit confused since she specified everyone should PM her with their email addy so she could send them a link.

But apparently if it can be done just as simply as you just did. Why can’t she just put theink into her post?

Sorry for the confusion. I just edited. I’m going to check back with her and see what’s up.

Yeah, that’s from my dropbox, though from that page it sounds like she’s misremembering how it works. It did use to be slightly more complicated, but now any file in the dropbox you can share with a simple link like I did.

Very impressed with the Google system. It saved me on a recent spreadsheet project where all parties were using different software. The Google spreadsheet translated them all perfectly.

Coming from a previous DrobBox user. I see no reason to use it again.

Well, she’s not currently using Dropbox I recommended to her that she does.

She’s using Box.com with which I’m not familiar at all.

I left her a Q asking why she couldn’t just put the link in a post instead of everybody emailing her separately.

@Realeyes

Can the same thing be done with Google Docs as Bhac did with the capybara link above?

Just heard from my son about a program called You Send It that is excellent for file-sharing. Don’t know much about it but you might want to check it out.

Buttonstc: “Can the same thing be done with Google Docs as Bhac did with the capybara link above?”

yes

It appears that box.net does have share by link as well. Although, there is no reason to need anything more than dropbox and Google.

I’m not sure that there is a best and a worst.

What I would strongly suggest is to check into which ones store encrypted data (and in particular, which ones store data that you encrypted as opposed to data that they encrypted. With the NSA snooping around the cloud, you likely want to do your own encryption.

So it’s not just ease of upload and download that needs to be examined, it is the security and privacy of your data once it is there.

The info about encryption will come in handy in the future.

But for this particular case, its a picture guide to Nemo’s Reef (an online game from Disney) so I doubt its of much interest to the NSA.

(Unless they think Nemo is a code word for something nefarious :) ha ha.

I’d better (redacted by CIA)

I like dropbox and google drive.

@tom_g

That did the trick. She was able to put a link directly into a post, thus making life easier all around.

@ALL

Thanks to everyone for participating. I’ve now gotten some excellent info and choices for whenever I may need to do the same. I lurched you all.

I’ve used Dropbox, Box.com, and Google Drive, and I’ve been pleased with all of them. They also work great on the iPad. I’ve not tried Microsoft’s SkyDrive, but that’s another option. And Amazon has CloudDrive. Last time I looked, however, Amazon CloudDrive did not sync files, and there was no iPad version.
At least on the iPad, there is also an app called Documents that can tie Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive and iCloud all within a single app. Very convenient.
Finally, there is a new kid on the block, called SpringPad. Works with PC, iPhone and iPad (and maybe more). I’ve just started checking this app out and I’ve been very impressed.

I really need to start proof reading things better :)

Meant to be I lurve you all (not lurched).

:D