min.us -- EASIEST FILE SHARING EVER!

[Darren Dirt]

from the mind of a Google engineer.

http://min.us/


without even signing up, you can simply drag a file onto the web browser, you instantly get a URL from where you can grab the file.

more flexibility/power if you sign up.

[Melbosa]

Wow... impressively easy

[Lazybones]

Until pirates take it over and then like rapid share and the others the account requirement will probably appear.

[Darren Dirt]

Wow... impressively easy

http://min.us/mvjjCYZ

[Darren Dirt]

Until pirates take it over and then like rapid share and the others the account requirement will probably appear.

http://blog.min.us/
http://min.us/pages/faq

in the blog and FAQ they talk about the features you get in a "profile" vs. without.




Minus is apparently inspired by the design of www.dropmocks.com , from another Google engineer (UI guru)
http://glenmurphy.com/projects/


-------
http://blog.min.us/2011/03/09/minus-google-chrome-extension/
nice!
-Take a screenshot of your browser and instantly upload to Minus
-Right-click on any images to upload to Minus

[Lazybones]

Until pirates take it over and then like rapid share and the others the account requirement will probably appear.

http://blog.min.us/
http://min.us/pages/faq

in the blog and FAQ they talk about the features you get in a "profile" vs. without.

Other than the TOS it doesn't say anything about how they are going to stop the service from being bombarded with pirated crap 1/100 25mb split uploads.
I bet someone right now is writing an uploader that splits large files into 25MB chunks, numbers them, uploads them then provides a set of links.

The admins will be playing whack a mole in no time.

[Thorin]

That app would need a little more...  If you upload anonymously, only you can view the file and only from the computer and browser you uploaded from and only if you don't clear your cookies.  Unless you share with everyone all the links to all the files you've created, in which case you would have to share a hundred links (for the example you give).  So the app would need to collect all those links.

Of course, the API they've created will make this quite easy to do from the pirate uploader's point of view.  The question will be whether the pirate downloaders will want to deal with the hassle of downloading separate chunks and gluing them back together.  And I'm betting they'll happily jump through that hoop.

Which comes back to Lazy's original point (paraphrased): If you make a really neat new service for the web, you'd better plan right now how you're going to contend with pirated material and porn.  Because it's gonna end up there soon enough.

[Thorin]

Oh, and I wonder just how quickly this'll get hit with DMCA lawsuits?

[Thorin]

So I tried uploading an mp3.  It got stuck at "Uploaded 100%" for several minutes.  We'll see if it completes.

[Thorin]

Nope, never finished.  So while it seems like a great idea, it also seems like it's not 100%.  What do you expect for free, though, right?

[Lazybones]

The question will be whether the pirate downloaders will want to deal with the hassle of downloading separate chunks and gluing them back together.  And I'm betting they'll happily jump through that hoop.

This is how pirated software has been distributed via binary newsgroups/usenet for years and still is.

Also if the anonymous mode is super limited, again explain how this is anything different than rapid share? Because they have Web2.0 HTML drag and drop?

[Darren Dirt]

they have Web2.0 HTML drag and drop?

I think that's it unique feature -- easiest to use, the URL is auto-generated and you can share with others if you want but especially easier than the extra clicking and waiting of Rapidshare etc.

[Lazybones]

Dropbox is even easier, I can create a shared URL right from explorer.

[Darren Dirt]

Dropbox is even easier, I can create a shared URL right from explorer.

agreed, for your own file sharing/transferring Dropbox rocks especially with all the various media/OS it works with (I have it installed on my Android tbh).

But I think this Google-engineer-created anonymous drag-and-drop is perfect for the non-techies who don't want to install anything, who are starting to think of the web "cloud" as just another folder on their desktop PC. Just cuz there's other similar services out there doesn't mean it doesn't have a place among them. Just look at "goo.gl", I use it all the time now, even though tons of other URL shorteners have been out there for years.

[Mr. Analog]

I think from their perspective (like many other cloud file shares) they can't take responsibility for the content stored there because they'd have to breach privacy and actually take a look at the content.

:shrug: I dunno...