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Dropbox is in your Office
- ape4 12y agoSo they are just using the Dropbox API like anyone else can do?
- gum_ina_package 12y agoWhoa, hell just froze over. I wonder how the OneDrive team feels about this? This kind of a decision was made at the highest levels of the company.
- dudus 12y agoWhy would they feel bad? They probably want to have a successful product not because the user has no option but for its own merits.
- simonh 12y agoTry that line on Bill Gates in his prime.
- nathantotten 12y agoThings are different around here. Teams are expected to deliver great products on their own, not rely on some artificial lock-in to force adoption. You see this all over - we offer Linux on Azure, you can federate AD with Google Apps, we release dozens of apps for iOS and Android, and we are opening up many many APIs for rich integration. (Opinion my own obviously).
- simonh 12y agoFair points, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with the direction MS is going in these days. I have to say that an Office 365 subscription would be really nice to have, but is just too pricey. Dropbox integration is a nice feature, but is it enough? Maybe one of these days.
- xorcist 12y agoThis has been the official line for a while but it has never been that way when it actually matters (ie. Windows and Office). That's why some people are pleasantly surprised by this.
- swartkrans 12y agoI liked your comment and voted you up but Microsoft's Linux on Azure is really weird. It's obvious there's a windows thing somewhere up in the higher levels because of the way certs are done and ports are used. It's all very non-linuxy. If Microsoft is going to do something with linux they should do it right.
- diestl 12y agoNext step is office being ported to Linux
- NicoJuicy 12y agoThe more integrations, the better....
- funkyy 12y agoIt sounds more like Microsoft wanting to bring Dropbox in to its influence area. Possible acquisition, lobbying strategy or marketing stunt sounds right.
- free2rhyme214 12y agoNo it sounds like Microsoft wants its users to use Office documents as opposed to Google Drive. Box and Dropbox support office formats which makes sense why they'd partner with them to perpetuate this usage.
- izolate 12y agoKind of like what Microsoft did to Facebook.
- jbigelow76 12y agoOffice is THE cash cow, OneDrive is (probably) a loss leader. Anything that can be done to ensure Office's continued near ubiquity, reduce usage friction, and shore up beach heads against competitors looking for an area to drive a wedge in will be done.
- marcosdumay 12y agoWell, that's really a new Microsoft. Just a short while ago, anything that could be done to make their products more integrated, and increase lock-in would be done. It didn't really matter if the benefited product made money or not. (For a very visible blow, look at the Windows Phone and Windows 8.) It's great to see that changing.
- rkuykendall-com 12y agoOffice has always been the exception to that rule. Look at the long, long, long history of Office on Mac.
- MichaelGG 12y agoOneDrive on Windows 8+ requires you to use an MS Account for your entire Windows session. So I'd have to pick a short password and do smart card support to use it. That's some pretty lame and obvious forced integration.
- pearjuice 12y agoYet another (succesful) attempt of Office to stay integrated into every household. I wish the entire Office suite would kust die over night but sadly it is too settled. There is no competition either or severely crippled.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- Kluny 12y agoWell, there's Open Office, Libre Office (both free) and Scrivener (paid), and tons of high end professional typesetting software - I'd say there's plenty of competition, but Office is winning because so far it's still the most accessible and useful for most people. It may be that it's the best of a bad lot, but I still choose it over LibreOffice etc.
- stangeek 12y agoTo me this sounds very much like "Microsoft is buying Dropbox in the next 6 months"...
- cwyers 12y agoWhat would Microsoft want Dropbox for? They don't have any infrastructure Microsoft would want (MS runs Azure, while Dropbox just rents off AWS), Microsoft has OneDrive clients for most of the platforms Dropbox is on... it doesn't seem to me that Dropbox has anything Microsoft can't just add to their own service.
- johansch 12y agoUsers and paying customers?
- ryanhunt 12y ago1. Market reach, it's where the customers are. Compare the sheer number of apps that have native Dropbox integration, with those that have OneDrive. While it's far from scientific, nearly everyone I know has a Dropbox account - very few have a OneDrive account. 2. It makes their own OneDrive service seem even more competitive. Why pay for Dropbox when you can buy Office365 for about the same price and get unlimited storage?
- diestl 12y agoYou could say the same about Google (Google+) and Facebook. Users!!!!
- pistle 12y agoThey could feasibly even create slopes that could pull dropbox into renting in Azure to achieve specific value-adds with MS integration. Overall, it looks like a plus for consumers with not a specific downside being described by anyone (yet?).
- bluedino 12y agoThey could make them switch to Azure like they made Hotmail switch from BSD to NT
- wesm 12y agoIntegration between Box and Office was announced at BoxWorks in September, so this shouldn't be a shocker: http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/03/box-pushes-its-office-365-integration-into-beta/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/03/box-pushes-its-office-365-i...
- Oculus 12y agoThis is very peculiar. From past Dropbox acquisitions, one can extrapolate they're almost certainly working on online collaboration tools. I wonder if Dropbox is using this as a way to gain footholds in large enterprise.
- free2rhyme214 12y agoOf course. Partnering with OEM's like Dell and integration in Office gives you access to more users and revenue.
- us0r 12y agoI wonder if this is an exclusive deal (no Google Apps).
- carlmcqueen 12y agoI think this is wonderful news. I'm really tired of having multiple cloud accounts for different types of media. Getting files between the different versions requires me stopping at a desktop to move to the desktop and then back up. At least this gets rid of one of those steps. Now I just wish there were a way to take xlsx's from dropbox on the iphone and send it to my work email without it coming as a shared link. I work in a locked down, regulated environment that can't open dropbox links. (finance)
- rpedela 12y agoI am genuinely curious if you are unable to open any link or is the restriction specific to Dropbox? And what is the reason for this restriction?
- carlmcqueen 12y agospecific to dropbox type of sites, including external email sites that company data could be dumped out of a secure environment.
- seshakiran 12y agoGood move. Will we see Dropbox part of MS soon?
- free2rhyme214 12y agoDrew didn't sell to Steve Jobs, why would he sell to Microsoft?
- tptacek 12y agoPresumably because Microsoft will make a better offer.
- jonlucc 12y agoIt's possible that it is becoming a more difficult space to compete in. There are now several companies (MS, Google) that can use it as a mechanism for lock-in or subsidize the costs in another way. If Dropbox wants to compete, their margins over AWS pricing will get very thin, and Google et al can still undercut them.
- free2rhyme214 12y agoCorrect! Actually what's coming is free or unlimited storage from MS and Google as Levie has pointed out awhile ago. When that happens the only way Box or Dropbox makes money is from businesses because MS and Google will want you in their eco-system.
- spain 12y agoI seem to remember them rejecting Google too so I highly doubt it.
- jstalin 12y agoThis only seems to be integration with Office web and mobile apps. I don't see integration with Office desktop apps.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- gumby 12y agoDon't the desktop apps simply work automatically with DB via the filesystem?
- ryanhunt 12y agoThis is great news! Although I imagine this will complicate things for those organisations that block access to Dropbox :)
- jostmey 12y agoDoes this increase the chances that Microsoft will try to buy Dropbox in the future?
- m_st 12y agoThat's great news, though a little late. The new iOS 8 document picker allows this in a transparent manner for any storage provider supporting it. Edit: here's the documentation: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/DocumentPickerProgrammingGuide/Introduction/Introduction.html https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/FileMa...
- johnloeber 12y agoOh, this is great news. Dropbox is a great product (no offense, OneDrive), and it'll make the entire Office Workflow a great deal cleaner and easier. I'm also glad to see integration across cloud services. I think this will improve the consumer experience.
- OneDrive 12y agoNone taken.
- ceejayoz 12y agoCan we not do the Reddit novelty accounts thing?
- themartorana 12y agoWhy do you hate fun? Edit: Why does everyone hate fun?
- Multics 12y agoThey're just counter-reddit. Even though it's something a hacker would do. Ironic. Bit of Office, bit of war-criminal-Dropbox. Top of HN. Awesome.
- xentronium 12y agoIt's unfair to say that HNers hate fun, only this particular flavor of it that degrades signal/noise ratio too much.
- lamby 12y ago> Dropbox is home to over 35 billion Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations I was at least one order of magnitude out.
- Istof 12y agothat is only about 117 files per user if there is still 300 million users
- bhartzer 12y agoSo, how long until Microsoft buys Dropbox? Seems kind of strange that they would not be integrating OneDrive into Office rather than Dropbox.
- pibefision 12y agoMy hope is that will never happend. It's just hope. Since FoxPro many years ago, there is not a single acquisition by Microsoft that turned in a great product or an improvement to the end user (please, include in this scope Groove Networks, whichi was great at that time).
- tiffanyh 12y agoThere's lots of good Microsoft acquisitions since FoxPro. Like: - Visio - Bungie Software (Halo) - Groove etc... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisition...
- free2rhyme214 12y agoYeah but has any of it got better? Skype, Halo, Minecraft? I think not.
- mikestew 12y ago> Since FoxPro many years ago, there is not a single acquisition by Microsoft that turned in a great product or an improvement to the end user Plenty of FoxPro stuff ended up in SQL Server. Client cursor engine is the first thing that comes to mind (RDO, too, IIRC). The product itself was allowed to languish, but the good parts went into other things. But for the most part I'd say you're spot on. I can't think of anything else that ultimately went on better things under Microsoft's flag, or benefited other products with the acquired product's technology.
- dheera 12y agoUgh, I hope it doesn't get acquired by Microsoft, of all companies. I use Dropbox specifically because it doesn't try to be too much, which makes it extremely flexible. In fact I use it for a million things other than file sharing.
- gummywormsyum 12y agoDoes this mean Condoleezza Rice will be able to see everything that I'm editing in Office??
- vlunkr 12y agoCondoleezza Rice doesn't care what you are editing in office.
- andyjohnson0 12y agoKudos to Microsoft for being open to partnering with Dropbox, as this new functionality appears to overlap with OneDrive. I hope this is another example of MS being more open and flexible after the recent leadership change.
- bduerst 12y agoBetween this and Band I'm actually impressed with Microsoft. While it was new at the time of it's release, Dropbox has fallen behind in usability and has sorely needed to effectively break into being a more collaborative platform. While I don't know the numbers, I can imagine SkyDrive hasn't exactly picked up with users. All around this benefits both companies.
- tkinom 12y agoNot sure how is this good news for Dropbox? MS is giving office 365 customer free unlimited cloud storage. Now M$ can tell their office (probably soon to be office 365 ) customers: "Good News, we have dropbox support for you, but BTW checkout out our unlimited cloud storage for free too." For me, it is a bit like MS in 90 said we have strong competitor call Netscape while pre install IE for free to kill Netscape. It is assimilation strategy from the old play book. Dropbox has little choose on this as Box are doing it and their enterprise customers might also demand it. They have to the poison pill.
- mh8h 12y agoIt's good for Dropbox, because they can push further into the enterprise market. When business users try to decide between Dropbox and OneDrive, Office integration won't be an issue for Dropbox any more. Dropbox has its own merits over OneDrive. OneDrive is not as friendly and feature-complete as Dropbox is. And Dropbox has far better APIs when it comes to integrating with other services. And as far as Microsoft is concerned, the partnership improves people's productivity.
- matthewmacleod 12y agoWhat? That makes no sense. Dropbox has moved from "no interoperability with Office" to "interoperability with Office". How can that be a bad thing?
- stinos 12y agoa bit like MS in 90 don't you mean M$ there :P No offense meant, but you know, it's a bit difficult to take people serious when they use terms like that.
- halviti 12y agoFor me, the fact that Microsoft worked directly with the FBI to integrate OneDrive into PRISM makes the whole product something I would never touch, so it's great to see alternatives picking up the slack. http://cryptome.org/2014/11/ms-onedrive-nsa-prism.htm http://cryptome.org/2014/11/ms-onedrive-nsa-prism.htm
- justcommenting 12y agoI hope Microsoft and Dropbox both improve their security, but Dropbox has a history of lying to customers when it comes to the security of its products, e.g. http://www.wired.com/2011/05/dropbox-ftc/ http://www.wired.com/2011/05/dropbox-ftc/
- lern_too_spel 12y agoDropbox also has to hand your data over upon receiving a court order. The only difference is Microsoft is less likely to bungle the request.
- ljk 12y agowell maybe Dropbox isn't so much better http://www.wired.com/2014/04/dropbox-rice-controversy/ http://www.wired.com/2014/04/dropbox-rice-controversy/ http://www.drop-dropbox.com/ http://www.drop-dropbox.com/
- api 12y agoAll the major cloud vendors are surveillance collaborators. ... and I have to ask: do they have any choice? Can you say no to the national security state? If I were in charge of a company with employees who have families and fiscal responsibilities, I can't say that I could. I'm sure any request from those quarters comes with an implied "we wouldn't want anything bad to happen to your company, now would we?" The only way I can imagine a company saying no is if it were privately held and the largest investors were on board, and most of these companies are public. Being public makes you subject to all kinds of "soft power."
- justcommenting 12y agothis is a political problem, but can also be addressed as an engineering problem: https://leastauthority.com/ https://leastauthority.com/ and https://www.tahoe-lafs.org/ https://www.tahoe-lafs.org/
- hanley 12y agoIt's interesting that the images show the Office app being used on an iPad instead of a Surface.
- fiatjaf 12y ago"Dropbox is home to over 35 billion Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations." So they're reading the files in Dropbox and its contents to know they're Office documents?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- noir_lord 12y agoDid you think they were not? How do you think they generate thumbnails and such?.
- fiatjaf 12y agoAh, they do that? That's cool!
- bastawhiz 12y agoIt's unlikely that they're trawling your uploaded content. Dropbox does some amount of preprocessing (e.g., to allow document preview and photo thumbnails), which also collects information like MIME type. I would assume they simply ran an aggregate query against this sort of metadata, or collected these stats at the time of upload.
- lentil_soup 12y agoI stopped using Dropbox after the whole Condoleezza Rice thing and have been using a mix of Google Drive and OneDrive and I must say I like them a lot better. They do the same (and more if you use other Google Apps) and prices are cheaper. Are there any benefits to using Dropbox? Are there any other real alternatives you could recommend to give them a try?.
- eli 12y agoI find that Google Drive just doesn't work as well. We routinely get files that are "unable to sync" but manually retrying them works. I've seen it happen on OS X and Windows. I think it just doesn't handle locked files as well. Dropbox "just works."
- skizm 12y agoDoes google drive have syncing folders on all systems like dropbox where I can just drag and drop? windows, mac, linux, android, ios? I actually don't know, not being sarcastic or anything.
- icelancer 12y agoThey do. I think this is a fair question because it's not very well popularized. But it works great.
- danieldk 12y agoGoogle Drive has no Linux client. There are only unofficial clients. Also, on my Macs Google Drive regularly crashes and is not able to upload some files (usually retrying works). With Dropbox I never had such problems.
- cstross 12y agoLast time I looked at the Google Drive terms of service -- which was admittedly years ago (I ought to check again) -- they were basically unacceptable for me because Google were demanding a perpetual non-exclusive copyright license to everything I stored there which would have allowed for unlimited reproduction or use for any purpose Google felt like making of it. It looked like your standard boilerplate land-grab, and unfortunately it was incompatible with my business (which involves selling exclusive (but time and scope limited) licenses to use copyrighted materials I produce.) Dropbox's copyright clause was much more tightly drawn and not incompatible with my business model.
- jmcdowell 12y agoVery interesting, just wondering but do people think this benefits one company more than the other? I originally thought Microsoft as its a great reason to keep Word relevant by teaming up with such a used storage platform and not succumbing to Google docs, but is that offset by dropbox being able to enter the enterprise world?
- wslh 12y agoThe managed file transfer sector is hot and there is no winner yet. Even a YC company called WireOver [1] is working in this space. A little bit precient, my company developed a free Outlook add-on to send dropbox files as attachments [2] in 2012. - [1] http://www.wireover.com/ http://www.wireover.com/ - [2] http://blog.nektra.com/main/2012/05/23/integrating-dropbox-with-microsoft-outlook/ http://blog.nektra.com/main/2012/05/23/integrating-dropbox-w...
- shurcooL 12y agoI really wish I could edit .txt files in the iOS Dropbox app instead. I wonder how much it will increase the app size.
- peterkelly 12y agoDidn't SunOS have pretty much exactly this in 1985? It's sad to see things like this being touted as "new".
- edpichler 12y agoMicrosoft integrating with competitor's products, this sounds news to me. A really good move, for both companies.
- amelius 12y agoMakes you wonder why MS doesn't just release a protocol that all cloud service providers can hook into...
- us0r 12y agoThey pretty much have an API for everything now.
- bobcostas55 12y ago>Microsoft integrating with competitor's products, this sounds news to me. Or as it was previously known, "Embrace".
- bithush 12y agoIndeed. Embrace. Integrate Office with it. Extend. Buy DropBox. Extinguish. Merge DropBox with OneDrive. Wow didn't expect this comment to bring on the downvotes.
- andybak 12y agoThat isn't the original meaning of the term "Embrace. Extend. Extinguish." which harks back to the Microsoft monopoly trial: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish > The strategy's three phases are:[11] > Embrace: Development of software substantially compatible with a competing product, or implementing a public standard. > Extend: Addition and promotion of features not supported by the competing product or part of the standard, creating interoperability problems for customers who try to use the 'simple' standard. > Extinguish: When extensions become a de facto standard because of their dominant market share, they marginalize competitors that do not or cannot support the new extensions.
- arrowgunz 12y agoI'm surprised by Microsoft's move here. Why would Microsoft not use OneDrive instead of Dropbox? Dropbox is surely a great product but Microsoft has something similar already. Am I missing something?
- macspoofing 12y agoMy guess: you either push for universal adoption of Office and Office formats or OneDrive. Office is a bigger deal for Microsoft than OneDrive so they went with the former.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- JBNixx 12y agoThis is an interesting move from Microsoft. It will create some competition for OneDrive. But Office 365 subscribers now get unlimited OneDrive space as part of the subscription. My bet is Dropbox integration might get some Dropbox users to buy Office 365. When they realize they get unlimited OneDrive space they might switch to OneDrive. Seems like a good move to be honest.
- skrebbel 12y agoAs an Office customer and a Dropbox customer, I can't help but have mixed feelings. Office already has "direct" OneDrive integration and it's pretty useless, how could it be any better on Dropbox? The whole thing about Dropbox is that just works. Files are files, folders are folders, if I move them about they move, etc. The only problem with Dropbox and Office is how Office locks the files so they're only synced after I close the Office program, not after every Ctrl+S. Fix that, and it's integrated. The whole "save in the cloud" nonsense that desktop Office programs have these days feels like a mistake. I can understand how with iOS's "no files" design, this is the only way forward, but on desktop? Please let it stop.
- dfrey 12y ago> I can understand how with iOS's "no files" design, this is the only way forward, but on desktop? Please let it stop. Apparently mobile is the future and the desktop experience must be crippled to unify it with the mobile experience. Personally, I don't understand how anyone gets real work done on tablets and phones. Sure there are some pretty silos, but trying to move data between silos is usually a nightmare.
- swartkrans 12y ago> and the desktop experience must be crippled to unify it Windows crippled their desktop experience for Windows 8 and 8.1 and are reversing it in Windows 10. No other operating system crippled their system in this way. So must is an unwarranted intensifier. Mistakes were made, things were learned, what you're saying isn't true.
- Periodic 12y agoWhat I think is the future for workstations and laptops is a web-integrated OS. Take Chrome OS as an example. These devices become more and more powerful as more and more of our data moves into the cloud. I don't think anyone actually reviews, comments on or edits large documents on a tablet. That would be a nightmare. The most I've found bearable when reviewing papers on a tablet is highlighting. On a laptop you have the power of a full keyboard, which I can use to comfortably compose this comment, yet my laptop has almost no internal storage and all my documents are stored on the cloud. This move is important for maintaining relevant, but I do think the insistence on tablets and phones is missing the whole of point of us making the data mobile.
- apulanta 12y agoWhy would anyone send anything important into a 3rd party cloud storage? Even if you encrypt your files before sending? Really why?
- jakozaur 12y agoConvenience. People need to get stuff done and sharing/syncing is often required. Most of people don't have time/knowledge to setup any shared file storage.
- brunnsbe 12y ago"We’ll also be releasing a Dropbox app for Windows Phone and Windows tablet users in the coming months." Not a day too early for the Windows Phone official app and another tick off the list of missing apps for Microsoft's mobile platform.
- Chronic29 12y agoLate or not, they will grow market share now.
- IDrive 12y agoHey Folks. Thomas from IDrive. Just wanted to point out that we offer private key encryption to our users. That means no one, not even Condoleezza Rice, can access your data except you.
- xs 12y agoBut what happens if I lose my key? Is my data inaccessible forever after?
- IDrive 12y agoYes that would be the case. For the user's security, we do not store their private key on our servers. But we make sure to give ample warning about this circumstance on our private key page. Hope that helps!
- preillyme 12y agoI'm looking forward to accessing Dropbox files from the Office app and saving new files to Dropbox.
- georgehaake 12y agoCondoleezza Rice is in your Office
- felixrieseberg 12y agoAs the Microsoftie in this thread I feel compelled to point out that you don't need an extensive partnership with us to integrate with office. And I'm not talking about the plugin development hell (never had to work with it, but that seemed, erm, "difficult"). Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions, or just read the docs yourself (http://dev.office.com/ http://dev.office.com/).
- tkmcc 12y agoQuick question: why aren't there any code samples [0] in C/C++? It would be nice to at least have a documented C++ WinRT API to work with for those of us that still write native desktop applications/services. I'm sure other folks across the company would agree ;) [0]: http://dev.office.com/code-samples http://dev.office.com/code-samples
- felixrieseberg 12y agoTake this as my own personal opinion, but before I went back into engineering, I worked with a bunch of developers out there to integrate with all kinds of our stuff - and outside of game development, C/C++ isn't the most popular choice. We have some code samples [0], but I see what you mean. The office team moving away from the old plugin model and opening up the gates for JS apps and REST APIs made life dramatically easier for a lot of folks. So I assume that samples were written with the most popular choices in mind. Internally, C++ is king [0], of course. It's also worth pointing out that we always accept code samples from the community :) [0]: https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/office/site/search?f%5B0%5D.Type=ProgrammingLanguage&f%5B0%5D.Value=C%2B%2B&f%5B0%5D.Text=C%2B%2B https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/office/site/search?f%5B0%5D.... [1]: http://cppcon.org/bonus-talk-cxx-in-ms-office-2014/ http://cppcon.org/bonus-talk-cxx-in-ms-office-2014/
- Alex3917 12y agoOne of the screenshots here shows a user storing both personal and business documents under the same account. Is it no longer the case with Dropbox that if you link your work and personal account, and your employer removes your work credentials, then all your personal files get deleted?
- johns 12y agoThat is no longer the case. Using Dropbox for Business gives you two separate boxes and the admin for the business one cannot see or access the files from your personal one.
- yim 12y agobye bye box.net?
- sporkenfang 12y agoDropbox is banned on my office network. Therefore, at least for me, this is a bit useless.
- tn13 12y agoWait. This does not make sense given that MS already provides OneDrive.
- Angostura 12y agoSo does this ability to edit in the Dropbox app mean I no longer have any need to buy the iOS versions of Office?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- pluma 12y agoConsidering the content of other revelations in the form of "X is in your Y" (and the general "I'm in your X, Y-ing your Zs" meme), this seems like an odd choice for a positive article.
- chmars 12y agoDropbox isn't in my office although I really like Dropbox. However, legal compliance is important in an office environment and Dropbox simply does not provide the necessary data privacy to store business secrets or staff records. Sorry, Dropbox. (Yeah, alternatives are a problem: Wuala is dying and Spideroak isn't much better easier. Tresorit might be a future alternative but in spite of having their current version published as 2.x, they have still some way to go …)
- modifier 12y agoThere are options out there (that don't have ties to the US military-industrial complex). Check out the free WPS Office. The 2014 beta version has free online backup too: http://www.wps.com/ http://www.wps.com/
- cetra3 12y agoFor anyone looking for an Open Source alternative: https://owncloud.org https://owncloud.org
- zaroth 12y agoWe know that much of the world relies on a combination of Dropbox and Microsoft Office to get work done. In fact, Dropbox is home to over 35 billion Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. See, you already lost me as a customer by highlighting the level of access you have into your customer's private data, and your willingness to exploit it for commercial gain.
- marvy 12y agoHow could they run their service without this access?
- zaroth 12y agoSee Tarsnap. Good cryptography means you don't have to trust the hosting provider. Obviously Dropbox doesn't offer that so then all we have left is how much we trust Dropbox not to look, and to treat their customers' data privacy as sacrosanct. Apparently that's not the case either, since they are scanning your folder content for marketing purposes.
- pinaceae 12y agothose numbers also mean it is much harder to find anything in it or easier for you to hide shit.
- NW_Preneuer 12y agoDB has now become boring. MS is a boring company.
- willyt 12y agoWhy does nobody ever mention BitTorrent sync as an alternative in these discussions? Is there some reason why it's not favoured that I have missed? Edit: Just in case this reads as baiting somehow, it's not it's a genuine question.
- Tomas-Owen 12y agoIts great, another integration....
- Karunamon 12y agoDropbox's big benefit for me, their pricing and unethical board members aside, is the sheer number of ancillary services that it works with. Odds are if some random desktop or mobile app has implemented a sync-between-devices service, it's using Dropbox. That feature is more important to me than just the file storage. Google Drive will become a lot more useful once developers start picking it up.
- Applico 12y agowe use exchange + dropbox, so this will be a nice feature