Thursday, March 30th, 2006

Public Sharing, Improved!

By , co-founder and CEO

As a multi-purpose storage company, we can never know how our service will be used by a specific user. Thus, the best way to organize and present files all users are through folders that everyone is familiar with. This often causes a problem, however, when people try and use us for photo sharing, not necessarily because you don’t keep your photos in folders, but because most photo sharing sites on the internet have tailored their design and file-organization specifically for photos. Since we cannot determine whether you are a photo sharing user vs. a document sharing user from the start (or you could be both), we have implemented some very simple yet interesting automated decisions. If you share a folder that has more than 60% photos in it, we assume that this is a photo gallery. When it is shared with the public, we will display thumbnails of your photos rather than small icons in a list format (the previous method). If you share a folder that has SUB-folders, we will use the same standards to display an album image to represent sub folders that are comprised of more than 60% photos, and any other files or folders will appear in list view under the albums. Crazy, huh?

If you need an example, here is a folder I have setup with 2 albums beneath it: http://www.box.net/public/rn9d02da8a

Also, if you didn’t notice, you can now add a personalized greeting and photo that is displayed on your public folder pages. Way more coming soon!

Aaron Levie

By ,

co-founder and CEO

See all of Aaron's articles.

  • http://www.popswordsmen.com Shafique Arnab

    Thats awesome..seriously…its like FlickR all over again only you can store more then photos! Good job man. But heres an idea: if the folder contains more then 60% documents..then it displays a thumbnai preview of the text in the file..kinda like on Deviant Art when you search for poems?..:)

  • tom

    hey aaron -
    in the “under the radar” folder the 2 shots of you presenting. Where can I get me one of those nifty BOX logo t-shirts.
    Was just saying to myself today that you guys need a store ‘cuz I want that shirt.
    Plus maybe a mug and a mousepad etc….

  • Aaron

    Tom, either I’m really gullible or you actually want a t-shirt :)

    You can buy one here:

    http://www.cafepress.com/spreadbox

    - Aaron

  • tom

    Not gullible – I DO want one -
    I was hoping you had a cafepress store
    Off to shop.

    Thanks for the link.

  • Alejandro

    hi i wanna be a beta tester of the explorer’s sync app

    aletornw.spam at gmail

  • Avinash

    This is a great application of what box has to offer. I’m using it so far and it’s probably the only “public” folder that I will have.

    There was one little feature that I thought was missing: When you add text in the “info” section to describe a folder or a file, it should be displayed when the item is clicked on.

    Overall, this is a great idea and I hope to see additions as they are rolled out.