Did I miss something? My Dropbox has had this functionality for a long time - years? Yes - just logged in and confirmed, the links section of my Dropbox account shows a link generated on 6/26/2010, and I'm sure that wasn't day 1 of this feature offering.
Maybe not enough people just ever noticed, and they're improving awareness?
It has long been a feature that you have to activate by clicking (appropriately enough, I guess) a link on an obscure Dropbox support page: https://www.dropbox.com/enable_shmodel
It can't have been that long ago because I've been able to copy public folder links and share files with users who don't have Dropbox since I first signed up - back in June of aught 10.
I agree. I have Dropbox for a couple of years now and the Public Folder was always there, allowing me to drop files in an ask (by right-clicking) for a public link, that "just works".
Perhaps DB made this feature available for all files and not just those in the Public folder. But is this really prudent? It makes following which files of mine are shared and which aren't harder...
AFAIK this was only available on items in the public folder (and not on folders themselves btw) ... now, it seems that you can get a link to any folder (get Public Gallery link) but I still can only link to specific items in the public folder ...
I am positive I have had this feature since the beginning and not just in the public folder. What odd though is that I have been the only person at work with it.
Probably something like that. One problem with the Public folder is that people can easily guess URLs to files you might not want to share with them. I recall http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1/test.png used to show a wireframe for the Dropbox Desktop client.
Being able to link to a folder is a godsend. I hated having to share a folder (editable) when I needed to send someone many files.
However, does this now deprecate the Public folder? I thought that was one of Dropbox's best features: knowing only things in the Public folder were publicly-accessible (with a link)—and more importantly, that files located anywhere else were completely private and NOT web-accessible at all—was easy to grok and explain.
I worry that as Dropbox moves toward its stated goal of becoming the "file system for the Internet" that they will give up the focus on syncing our private files in exchange for the allure of allowing every site and app to read and write from one's Dropbox. That's a worrisome future, indeed.
I always found the Public folder annoying, you always end up copying stuff around. Having a list of what files/folders are shared in the web UI would be enough to keep track, I think (depends on how many shares there are I guess - but one could still do the 'one Public folder' thing)
> they will give up the focus on syncing our private files in exchange for the allure of allowing every site and app to read and write from one's Dropbox
They're not necessarily mutually exclusive, but it's hard for me to trust an app with my private files if an errant click somewhere might open them up to the public web by mistake.
Previously on Dropbox, I knew that if a file wasn't in my Public folder, it was not shared with anyone (unless I had manually created a "shared folder"). Now, I can never be entirely sure.
Whoa there. Back up a second from the TC this awesome orgy...
More info needed!? Files not in my shared folders or public folder can now be shared using a url? Does it actually generate a link or now everything on Dropbox could be found by guessing a secret url? The Dropbox page explaining this and linked to by the TC article is too dumbed down to understand what just changed and I didn't get any emails or announcements from Dropbox about this... NOT COOL. What happened to "Your files are always safe"??? Why do companies not understand trust? (Yeah, yeah I'm familiar with the usual "your average moron doesn't care about these details" mythos/cancer).
I've been using links with Dropbox from the beginning, and I use it regularly. I guess the functionality is enhanced now (and no, I won't read the TechCrunch article).
This is cool, but when I get a link for a folder, I don't see any way for the person that receives the link to easily download all of the files in the folder. The Dropbox page about this feature says "no more zip files"[1], but without the ability to download an entire folder at once, I'll still need zip files.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 61.2 ms ] threadMaybe not enough people just ever noticed, and they're improving awareness?
Perhaps DB made this feature available for all files and not just those in the Public folder. But is this really prudent? It makes following which files of mine are shared and which aren't harder...
However, does this now deprecate the Public folder? I thought that was one of Dropbox's best features: knowing only things in the Public folder were publicly-accessible (with a link)—and more importantly, that files located anywhere else were completely private and NOT web-accessible at all—was easy to grok and explain.
I worry that as Dropbox moves toward its stated goal of becoming the "file system for the Internet" that they will give up the focus on syncing our private files in exchange for the allure of allowing every site and app to read and write from one's Dropbox. That's a worrisome future, indeed.
Also, when something is linked, there is a link icon on the right side of the file browser on http://dropbox.com/home
I don't see how those are mutually exclusive.
Previously on Dropbox, I knew that if a file wasn't in my Public folder, it was not shared with anyone (unless I had manually created a "shared folder"). Now, I can never be entirely sure.
More top-notch 'journalism' from TC.
More info needed!? Files not in my shared folders or public folder can now be shared using a url? Does it actually generate a link or now everything on Dropbox could be found by guessing a secret url? The Dropbox page explaining this and linked to by the TC article is too dumbed down to understand what just changed and I didn't get any emails or announcements from Dropbox about this... NOT COOL. What happened to "Your files are always safe"??? Why do companies not understand trust? (Yeah, yeah I'm familiar with the usual "your average moron doesn't care about these details" mythos/cancer).
[1] https://www.dropbox.com/links/features