4 ms·

I suspect they just want to focus on their core benefit so that they don't stretch too thin.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
The core benefit of Dropbox is being "a folder that syncs". They've pretty much nailed it at the very start, and all the recent changes seem to be only step backwards. Lack of ability to link directly to files (instead of their heavy and useless web UI with "download" button) is something that makes their product worse, from user's POV.
- jpalomaki 10y ago
  Smart sync was a giant leap forward. This one actually makes the sync usable on business accounts as well (fairly small laptop SSD and 15 people storing stuff was a difficult combination).
- ovao 10y ago
  Although it involves a redirect, so it's not, per se, direct, appending ?dl=1 to a Dropbox link does at least trigger a file download.
  - the_af 10y ago
    This is not useful for hotlinking pictures, for example for embedding them in a forum.
    - ovao 10y ago
      I believe that's an intentional limitation.
      - the_af 10y ago
        I know it's intentional. I'm just saying it results in something that is definitely not direct and noticeably less useful. That it can be made to trigger a download is not particularly useful.
        ovao 10y ago
        I agree that it's not direct and less useful. The commenter I originally responded to, however, appeared to be concerned with the ability to link to files in a way that doesn't bring up the Dropbox UI, which the query parameter does at least accomplish to some degree.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - mos_basik 10y ago
      last I tried, which was a couple months ago, replacing the "www" with a "dl" in a public link made it work for hotlinking. so, starting with https://www.dropbox.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?... and navigating to this https://dl.dropbox.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?d... results in a redirect to this https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/13717249... which can be hotlinked. What this means in a specific sense, I haven't yet learned. I'm particularly interested to know the behavior of any of these links if the file is moved/renamed. I have not tested it, but my intuition is the dropbox.com link would survive a move and the dropboxusercontent.com link would not.

The core benefit of Dropbox is being "a folder that syncs". They've pretty much nailed it at the very start, and all the recent changes seem to be only step backwards. Lack of ability to link directly to files (instead of their heavy and useless web UI with "download" button) is something that makes their product worse, from user's POV.

jpalomaki 10y ago
Smart sync was a giant leap forward. This one actually makes the sync usable on business accounts as well (fairly small laptop SSD and 15 people storing stuff was a difficult combination).
ovao 10y ago
Although it involves a redirect, so it's not, per se, direct, appending ?dl=1 to a Dropbox link does at least trigger a file download.
- the_af 10y ago
  This is not useful for hotlinking pictures, for example for embedding them in a forum.
  - ovao 10y ago
    I believe that's an intentional limitation.
    - the_af 10y ago
      I know it's intentional. I'm just saying it results in something that is definitely not direct and noticeably less useful. That it can be made to trigger a download is not particularly useful.
      - ovao 10y ago
        I agree that it's not direct and less useful. The commenter I originally responded to, however, appeared to be concerned with the ability to link to files in a way that doesn't bring up the Dropbox UI, which the query parameter does at least accomplish to some degree.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - mos_basik 10y ago
    last I tried, which was a couple months ago, replacing the "www" with a "dl" in a public link made it work for hotlinking. so, starting with https://www.dropbox.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?... and navigating to this https://dl.dropbox.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?d... results in a redirect to this https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/1371724997329.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2s31p57eod49dva/13717249... which can be hotlinked. What this means in a specific sense, I haven't yet learned. I'm particularly interested to know the behavior of any of these links if the file is moved/renamed. I have not tested it, but my intuition is the dropbox.com link would survive a move and the dropboxusercontent.com link would not.