Digital Media 101: Say Goodbye FTP – Part 2

continued from previous post

Yesterday we talked about the departure from FTP to the web browser. Today I want to discuss some free alternative dedicated media store and share websites that upload directly from the browser.

Rapidshare has a simple Google like interface, it an excellent upload feature, possibly the best that we tested thus far. Megaupload on the other hand is hella confusing. Once you catch your bearings you can navigate pretty easy. For the one time upload they are both solid services and neither require you to login, but you can set up a profile if you wish. On the receiving end; however, as the recipient attempts to download they are met with an obnoxious countdown and bombarding ads strategically posted on the download page. That alone is a HUGE turnoff and a terribly bad decision for their business.

Both FileFactory and Yousendit are also good services, they also offer a simple upload and share feature. The big let downs are that there is no resumed support if disconnected and there are both storage and bandwidth limitations. The biggest issue of all is expiration date of the media media. Yousendit only provides 7 days from the date of upload FileFactory has extended from 7 days to 90 days. Yousendit does have a ton of features for their subscription service along with the ability to create a custom branded download page.

To be fair, the above mentioned services work perfectly fine for most instances and they are free after all. But some clients and people not so tech savvy may find them each to be off putting.

The Codedsignal 1st Pick
There can only be ONE!!!! In the free web sharing market, Mediafire wins convincingly. It has no time limit for hosting uploaded medias. It provides unlimited storage capacity, unlimited simultaneous downloads (that resume if disconnected), unlimited bandwidth to serve any medias under 100MB, Public and private password protected medias, Public and private password protected folders. The interface is user friendly for both the sender and the recipient. Learn more.

The Codedsignal 2nd Pick
Our second choice is Box.net. First off it stands out because it works for mobile. Users can upload and view media medias directly from their mobile phone (if the media is supported). The second thing you notice is that its got one of the most simple utilitarian interfaces of all the hosts mentioned. The biggest obvious drawback is that there is a 10 MB upload capacity. This would be a service for people serving small media medias. It has some great offerings and it plays well with Web 2.0 services, we feel that this is the hosting service to watch out for.

Every media store and share need is different. People are at varied experience levels and each situation is not always met with the same solution. The point of this post is to inform people of the free alternatives to FTP. We suggest our recommendations above but please take the information found in this blog and form your own investigation. We always enjoy feedback and comparisons so feel free to join the discussion.

- bendrix

Codedsignal.com is a Digital Media Network featuring: Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop | Beneath the Beat: Electronica | Shanxi Nan Lu: Travel | Digital Media Tips: Web Culture – and hosts a variety of other related media properties.

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Digital Media 101: Say Goodbye FTP – Part 1

Yesterday it was about FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and web hosting. Today its all about the web browser. Until recently it was impossible to store and share digital media unless you used an FTP client. It is true that applications like Flickr, Youtube and Facebook are a form of media-sharing; but this is not the same as serving large media files (ex. TIF, MPG-2 and AIFF) with the intent to take that media offline and/or transfer that same or altered media back to the web hosting server.

Media sharing is not a new concept, for over a decade people have used P2P (Peer to Peer) programs to transfer media. But what happens when the media is too big for email and your recipient doesn’t use IM, a torrent or an FTP client? What happens if its a time sensitive deadline and the client needs the files immediately? And what happens if someone attempts to download this media in a foreign land that blocks server inquiries from the country hosting the media?

For example, I was in mainland China for 8 months and during my stay I could not access our WordPress blog nor any of our media hosted on our Godaddy server. Its an obscure reality, considering all the access we have in the USA, but it is something I have been thinking a lot about since I’ve been back in the states.

Its fascinating how less than 7 years ago, serving and storing media online was considered a complicated mundane task done only by geeky web masters and programmers. Now everyone, their mother and their mother’s mother, literally, want to share media. Since the dawn of the internet, FTP has been the method used to remotely transfer data files from your computer (client) and serve it up to a dedicated networking computer (server). Though it is a straightforward simple process, It remains a complicated mundane task for the masses.

An unexpected thing happened in the late 1990′s. The internet adjusted to a new set of rules. P2P applications like AIM, Napster, and Hotline made media sharing fun and accessible. People began to spend enormous amounts of time using P2P tools rather than hanging out on the dysfunctional ad-banner driven internet. People were downloading music, games, photos applications, and chatting. During this time the advertisers, consumers and programmers of the static and temperamental (multimedia) web were at a critical cross road.

Then between 2002-2005, something really exciting happened. Developers and visionaries fused the simplicity and collaboration of P2P culture and created an overlay for the mundane task driven internet. I firmly believe that the combination of portals like online dating sites and niché media sharing sites have helped to save internet culture as we know it. And most certainly they have forever reinvented the way people communicate and express themselves. People no longer need to learn complex programming nor perform data transfer protocols to present their media to the world. Today Its all about filling out profiles and posting, text, photos, audio, and videos through the browser.

Tomorrow we will examine some useful free alternative media storage sites.


- bendrix

Bendrix is the founder and Digital Media Strategist for Codedsignal, Inc. Codedsignal.com is The Digital Media Network featuring the following media properties: Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop | Beneath the Beat: Electronica | Digital Media Tips | Shanxi Nan Lu.

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