Facebook Buys Drop.io, Shuts It Down
If you cannot do it yourself, or if it costs to much to do it, buy someone else who already does it. Many big players on the Internet handle new projects or improvements to old projects this way.
This time it is the number one site on the Internet Facebook, that just bought the cloud based file sharing service Drop.io, or more precisely "most of drop.io’s technology and assets". In addition, Drop.io's Sam Lessin will be moving to Facebook. It is not clear what happens to the rest of the drop.io team, the official blog post does not mention anything related to that.
The takeover has consequences, the most noticeable that free users are not able to upload data to drop.io servers anymore. Only downloads are available for these users. Paid users do not have this restriction yet as they can continue to use the service normally. On December 15 however it is time to say goodbye for everyone, as paid accounts will be discontinued as well.
Paid users with important files on drop.io servers need to download these files to their computer until December 15, as drop.io plans to delete the data after that day.
No user data or content will be transferred to Facebook. Other drop.io services, like "Presslift, our Yahoo! Mail Application, and our APIs will stay online for a longer period before the company winds down".
The aquisition of drop.io gives Facebook access to file hosting and sharing technologies. It is likely that they plan to use the technology to improve or expand Facebook's offering in this space.
Maybe, and that is speculation on my part, free storage space for every Facebook user, or better handling of media contents shared on Facebook.
With another file hosting service gone, what's your favorite at this point in time? Let me know in the comments.
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Such a shame that Drop.io is shutting down. It had the unique (as far as I know) facility of allowing you to create a URL for the files that you’re dropping. This was great, because you could name it something sensible to you, and was therefore easy to pass to other people.
I wish they’d indicate in their blog whether this sort of thing was going to continue. CAn’t help feeling that they’re going to make it much more complicated to drop files via Facebook, which negates the really neat feature of being able to make up the URL. Big shame.
For some time now, drop.io discontinued its voicemail-to-mp3 service which I used for audio/music journaling and automatic posting. It was incredibly elegant. Have been missing it already and suspected this. Too bad. I feel like even if/when FB does integrate this particular service, they’ll f it up. Or, at the very least, it’ll be as clunky and inflexible as dozens of other killer ideas that get filtered through their platform and become water-down tech-wine. i.e. What the hell is with the crappiest music player on the planet on my musician page?
Just letting you know that there’s a new alternative to drop.io.
It’s called Ge.tt (http://ge.tt). It’s instant file sharing, and you can share any number of files, no matter how large, in seconds. It’s quite easy, if I may say so :)
My personal favorite is Filesdirect (http://www.filesdirect.com). 2GB uploads even on the free plan, 128-bit SSL encryption, and 10 GB of storage to start!
That’s the worst news I’ve read in days. Drop.io was much more than a file sharing service. The entire package comprised all sorts of io’s. Another one bites the dust.
strange canot send big file nomore in drop io,there is drop io in left but not avalaible,why?but many people like use yahoo,pities pfffff
@oscarthegrouch: That is the tip of the day as far as I’m concerned. I’ve always loved adblock but had no idea it was so handy for getting rid of social network garbage too. A million thanks.
“Already have to deal with seeing their obnoxious login gimmicks (even here), and stupid “like†buttons.” … a new adblock filter list blocks social network annoyances buttons, etc.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/banish-social-network-buttons-adblock/ http://www.fanboy.co.nz/adblock/?q=node/806
The bigger they get, the harder they fall.
Meh, don’t care. There are umpteen great file storage services out there still that are free.
What I DO care about is the fact that Facebook wants to take over the Internet. Already have to deal with seeing their obnoxious login gimmicks (even here), and stupid “like” buttons.
Why in the world would anybody in their right might mind (not you left handers) TRUST facebook with storing their file?
Sounds German :) Though most Germans speak English better than French do !
I have an ADrive (free) account (50GB max), just in case of, but I don’t use it. For backups, I perform them locally (other hard drive, dvd, usb ctick), for sharing files, I use Filemail.
As far as Drop.io is concerned, well I guess that’s life. Being from the old school I tend to prefer specialized approaches, like a-job-for-everyone style. Nowadays banks sell insurances, insurances go on banking, business is business, why not sell hamburgers on one hand and real estate on the other, for instance ? Well, why ?
Lol, Facebook begins its competition with Google!