Tech Tool Review: Dropbox

Andy Vasoyan

Dropbox is an interesting and capable file-transferring tool that, despite the availability of other somewhat similar file-transfer tools and its decision to sacrifice more fine-tuned controls in lieu of ease-of-use and UI simplicity, is one of the larger fish in the very large pond of tools that allow users to move information from one hard drive to another.

The San Francisco-based startup's product, which started up in 2007, is available on their website at dropbox.com, and immediately brings the viewr into close contact with their philosophical approach to design: way, way less is more. The website is Spartan in layout, but their options are plentiful, and Dropbox itself has ports onto all major OS types, phone and computer both. The install is generally pretty smooth; Dropbox is a top-150 Alexa ranked website, so they generally know what they're doing. After that, getting going is simply (well, kind of simple, at least) a function of sharing or having another person share their Dropbox with you, and the two folders are linked. Sharing usually comes along through an email, which is nice, but it might be even better if Dropbox used some sort of internal connectivity to direct-contact the prospective sharer. I don't know how practical that is, and email probably saves all sorts of costs, but it would still be nice.

Either way, once the mutual link is confirmed, Dropbox is, for all intents and purposes, just another folder on your desktop, except that this one uploads all changes from all members to the group folder and it's up to date. I'm not sure how they prioritize changes, like say if two people are editing a file and one wants to change the name but the other wants to move it, but I've never had such a conflict myself, so I'm probably just speculating and Dropbox has some sort of hierarchy tier for editing.

When I open Dropbox, it acts as a perfectly regular folder, with the exception that some of my default settings (like, when I drag a file out, it should copy instead of moving, but that doesn't apply to the Dropbox folder) do not apply. Also, getting access to the menu is definitely more than a bit of a hassle. It's hidden in the wee corner with a gear setting, and the menus are not super-intuitive, which would be okay, but the whole idea of Dropbox is that it's intuitive, so it's a good bit of a let-down when the menu isn't the same as the rest of the experience.

Still, that says a lot about the experience itself. Dropbox is just a folder, but in being "just" a folder it sacrifices increased initial set-up time for much less time required after initial set up when compared with, say, Google drive. It also doesn't necessitate a google account, like drive, or have the browser-based upload hassle of other transfer sites, like mediafire or Megaupload. There's a reason that Dropbox is king of the land in those parts. The simplicity, straightforward UI, and intuitive idea, if frustrating at first, definitely get the job done smoothly by the end.