Dropbox gets placeholder feature
Dropbox announced Project Infinity today which brings local and online storage closer together by making all non-synced files available as placeholders on local devices.
Sounds familiar? Microsoft's implementation of OneDrive on Windows 8 supported placeholders but the company made the decision to remove the feature again stating that it confused users.
Dropbox goes a step further than that by making it a feature designed specifically for teams and large online storage repositories.
This means that all files, regardless of whether they are owned by the account or shared with it, are displayed on the local system once Project Infinity is enabled for a user accounts.
This is a major step up from Dropbox's previous implementation which supported full or selective file synchronization only.
The main issue was that users had to use Dropbox's web interface if they wanted to find out about all files that were not synced to the local computer.
This was for instance the case when the total amount of storage was larger than the available storage space on the local computer, or if the user of the device decided not to sync all files.
If a file was required then, users either had to enable the syncing of the folder using the Dropbox application, or use the web version of Dropbox to search for files or folders first.
With Project Infinity, all files show up on all local devices all the time even if the local storage is tiny in comparison.
This is done by using placeholders or stubs which take up 0 bytes on the PC. The example that Dropbox gives in the video highlights a case where a user has access to more than 10 Terabytes of data online.
It is nearly impossible to get all that data synced to a laptop for instance, and that's one situation where the new feature will improve how content is found and accessed significantly.
Browsing all files should feel more intuitive as well for Dropbox users, considering that they see all folder and file names in File Explorer or Finder.
A cloud icon indicates that content is not stored on the local device while the checkmark icon that it is.
You can sync any file that is not on the local device in several ways, for instance by double-clicking on it on Windows, or by right-clicking on a folder and selecting to save a local copy.
These files become available then, and while the actual synchronization process is not slower or faster than before, it makes it a lot easier to grab files that are only available in the cloud for local access.
Dropbox announced the feature only for Windows 7 and newer, and Mac OS X. The company made no mention of Linux, and did not reveal if it will enable the feature for all Dropbox users or only Pro/Enterprise customers.
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.