If you’re not using Dropbox yet, read this

While going to M.I.T., Drew Houston (the founder of Dropbox) had the bad habit of forgetting to bring his USB flash drive with him to class. This annoying problem caused him to think of a way that he could easily have his data with him wherever he went. He thought of a solution that would do just what he wanted. He felt it was a good enough solution to be turned into a business. The solution he thought of became the basis for creating Dropbox.

Dropbox is a software program you install on your computer. It gives you a folder called your “Dropbox.” Whatever files you save in your Dropbox will be available on any of your other devices that have the Dropbox app installed. It’s that simple. If you don’t have any of your devices with you, you may use someone else’s computer to log into your Dropbox account to access your files through the website. Dropbox is free to use for up to five gigabytes of storage. There is a cost to increase the storage amount.

The four most important functions of Dropbox are:

1. You can access data from any of your devices or from any computer over the web.
2. Putting your data in Dropbox creates a backup of your work in the cloud.
3. Dropbox makes it very easy to share your data.
4. You can access deleted and previous versions of your files.

When it comes to sharing your data, Dropbox makes it easy to share files or whole folders. You create a shared folder and add other people to it. The folder will then appear in the Dropbox of those people. You can share with non-Dropbox users also by getting a link to any file or folder. Once you get the link, you can send it to someone by email, Facebook, Twitter, instant message, or other ways. Facebook now offers integration with Dropbox. This allows you to share data from your Dropbox in Facebook’s group pages without exiting the Facebook interface.

The ability to access deleted and previous versions of files is a very useful feature as well. Dropbox saves a history of all files and file versions for thirty days after deletion, or after changes have been made. By adding the “Packrat” feature in Dropbox, you get access to unlimited deletion and version history.