Wow, it’s been a big day for the blog. Here’s our newest pair of features — an upgrade to our flagging system and a new “Recent Links” tracker on every download page.
Flagging: Some content that’s not allowed on DivShare is bound to make its way onto the site, and we rely heavily on our users to flag these files to bring them to our attention. People have done a great job so far — both in keeping copyrighted and adult content off the site and reporting it when they find it — but we’ve found that our flagging system needed a couple upgrades.
Since it can take us a long time to identify the true contents of a file, we’ve added a way for the user who flags a file to tell us why they’re flagging it, so we know in advance what we’re dealing with. This also helps prevent accidental flagging, because we’ve heard that some non-English-speaking visitors accidentally click “flag” because they think it’s the “download” button. (We’re too cool for a download button :))
Referer Tracking: Our next feature answers a burning question for any DivShare extraordinaire — who’s linking to my files? Now, the site tracks your five most recent referers for each file and displays them on the download page, with links back to the original pages. Just like trackbacks on your blog, this is a cool feature that lets you keep up on who’s digging what you’re sharing.
You’ll notice that the link shows only the domain, but the destination is the actual page — that’s why several different URLs all show up with the same domain in the example above.
Hope you enjoy these fancy new features, and keep your eyes open for a lot more this weekend and next week. And, if you’re not already commenting away, now’s the time :).
So, we were surfing Digg, and all of a sudden we found this: Inspire Yourself: 50 Remarkable Favicons. Dave said to himself, “yeah, I should really tweak ours a little” … then he scrolled down. There’s DivShare, number three on the list of oh-so-gorgeous petal icons. Check it out for yourself, and we’ll try not to blush.
However, the design of Favicons can be tricky - it isn’t that easy to create a beautiful 16×16px mini-icon. Still, some designers manage to achieve tremendous effects. Logotypes with clear geometric structures are easier to work with than typefaces or abstract images. The color selection corresponds to current Web 2.0 trends. Let’s take a look at 50 beautiful favicons you can inspire yourself from.
In celebration of you, our amazing members, and all the love, feedback and traffic you’ve sent our way during our first six weeks online, we have a big announcement. We are doubling our max upload size to 200MB!
That means you have more room to upload your big stuff, and you still get to enjoy unlimited storage, unlimited downloads, and the security that your files will truly stay online forever. Hit us up in the comments to let us know how you’re using your new freedom :).
As we mentioned yesterday, we have a lot of new updates on the horizon. One that we’ll be introducing very soon is an upload progress meter, so that you can keep track of how much time is left before your file goes online. Watch the blog for more, and, as always, comment away.
Since we can’t stand to go a few days without rolling out a new feature, here’s the next one: File Descriptions. In what I think is the most useful feature we’ve added since launch, the descriptions allow you to give your file a more elegant title than the filename itself, and also act as photo captions for your images. Let’s start our slideshow of the changes with the new upload form:
Each file now has its own “description” field — totally optional, but very useful as well. Just fill it in with whatever you want, and upload away! You might also notice that the description fields in the “multiple files” section aren’t displayed by default — they will appear once you browse for a file in each field.
Once you’ve uploaded a file or two, head over to the dashboard and check out our beautiful new “edit description” icon, the blue pencil. Just click on that to pop out your editing dialog — and remember that this works for old files, too. If you want to get rid of a description altogether, just erase it and click “save”.
Next up, we’ll check out the download page. For files, such as the MP3 below, the description shows up just below the “Download [filename]…” header. Here’s an example:
And on images, the description acts as a caption, allowing me to add some real captions to my Italy album rather than just displaying the filenames assigned by my digital camera. Here’s an example of that one:
So, there’s a simple but very functional new tool to help you get the most out of your DivShare experience. The dashboard search will cover file descriptions now, too, so that should help you keep things a little more organized. And, as you will probably notice throughout the week, this is just one step toward a very cool feature we’re going to be adding within the next week or two — a new, social, searchable section of DivShare. We’ll expand more on this idea as we put the pieces together with each new feature, so for now, just imagine the possibilities :).
Hit us up with your feedback below, and go describe some files!
As promised, here’s the second installment of our new streaming MP3 feature — a player that you can embed in your blog, profile, or anywhere else on the web! You’ll find the code as a new Sharing Option on all your MP3 download pages, and you can check out a live example right here:
Nice, right? Expect to see a couple more player design tweaks tomorrow, and drop us some links in the comments to show us where you’ve installed the player for your DivShare music. In the coming week, we’ll be introducing a lot of cool new features, so stay tuned, and fill us in with all your comments on the new player.
(By the way, if you like that song above, check out Keith’s site to hear the whole album.)
Update, 1/29: We’ve made some tweaks and changes to the MP3 player programming and code over the last 24 hours, so if you’ve already posted one on your site, head back to the download page for your file and grab the new code. Your old code will still work, but the new version is optimized for streaming multiple files and making everything run a little smoother. Enjoy!
Time for a brand new feature — streaming MP3s on your download pages. Now, the download pages for all your MP3s (new and old) will include a built-in Flash “Play” button. Just click on that, and the MP3 will stream right to your speakers.
Check out that image above, and listen to this live example from a radio station in Kansas City that’s been using DivShare. We’ll also be introducing a new sharing option that allows you to embed a similar MP3 button into your blog, site or profile within the next few days. Enjoy!
Oh, and one more obvious note: You are responsible for all the files you upload, and it is illegal to share any music to which you don’t own the rights. So please enjoy DivShare responsibly and don’t upload pirated music (even as a private file). As always, hit us up in the comments with all your suggestions.
DivShare has always been a great way to share your files with the world, and our newest feature now makes it a perfect solution for storing your backups, personal projects and other private files online. These new private files are accessible only when you’re logged into your account.
To give it a try, log in to your account or sign up for a new one (it’s very fast and very free). Then head over to the upload page, where you’ll find a new sharing option:
Check the “Make it private” box and upload away. Your new file still gets its own DivShare URL, but no one will be able to download it but you. Here’s what another user will see if they try to access your private file:
And, of course, if you ever visit your file’s download URL before you’re logged in, just use the form on that page and you’ll be able to view your file immediately. Now, head over to the dashboard to see the changes we’ve made to allow you to modify the privacy setting of all your files:
You can also see the new icon we’re using to indicate a file that’s been flagged, as well as the fact that we use DivShare a lot while developing DivShare :). To change your file’s privacy, just click on the “Public” or “Private” link, which will launch a new dialog beneath the file, just like how it works for deleting a file or viewing the sharing links.
So, there ya go! Start taking advantage of the new privacy features to upload all the stuff you want to keep online but don’t want everyone else to see. And, of course, our content standards regarding adult and copyrighted content like music, movies and software still apply to your private stuff.
As always, hit us up with all your comments and suggestions right here on the blog.
As promised, we are upgrading our server configuration today. We don’t expect any significant downtime, but there may be a few minutes this afternoon or evening when the site goes down to switch over to the new system. Thanks for using DivShare, and we hope you enjoy an even faster experience with our new setup.
Now we’re really getting to the good stuff. We’ve added three great new features to the dashboard — improved gallery organization, the ability to add new files to an old gallery, and an easy way to search your files. Here are the details on how each one makes DivShare better than ever:
Gallery Organization
One of our least favorite parts of the old dashboard was that it wasn’t always clear which images were included in a gallery, and there was no visual grouping for those images. So we added that much-needed visual element, and also a note showing how many images the gallery contains:
Adding New Images to a Gallery
The other new gallery function will also be a big help for a lot of our users — you can now add new images to a gallery after you initially create it. Just use the form attached to every gallery displayed on your dashboard:
And on the success page, you’ll be able to add as many more images as you want, just like during the original upload process.
Search Your Files
The next feature will be a big help for the many of you who are uploading dozens or hundreds of files to your accounts. Using the form at the top-right of the new dashboard, you can quickly search the names of all your files. So if you’re looking for all your Word documents, search for “doc”, or if you want a specific file, search for part of its name.
The results page hooks you up with everything in your account that matches your search terms.
Nice! It’s been a fun night of upgrades so far, and tomorrow you can expect an even bigger one: support for file privacy. You’ve been using DivShare to upload and share more than 48,000 files in the past month, and with private files, you can expand your use of the site to include stuff you don’t want the world to see. It’s a great place to put your backups, personal documents, and anything else that you need to access quickly and easily online. Keep your eye on the blog for more updates in the next 24 hours, and in the meantime, post your comments about the dashboard upgrades right here.
It’s been a great month, and now it’s time for some major upgrades. We’ll be rolling out a long list of new features over the next 48 hours, including some major dashboard usability upgrades and server enhancements to make your DivShare experience even faster and smoother. But first, let’s introduce the Mid-Size image.
We already offer the HTML for sharing full-size images and 130-pixel thumbnails on the web, but we felt there was something missing in between. So we’re rolling out the new 400-pixel mid-size image, which will fit perfectly on your blog, profile or wherever else you’d like to post it online. Check out this example from my New Year’s trip to Rome:
Nice fit, right? These will be created for every image you upload from now on, and you can grab the HTML from the usual list of “Share This File” options. Watch this space over the next half-hour or so for another quick download page design tweak, then log on later tonight to get a peak at our new dashboard features. Happy blogging!
Here’s that tweak: We’ve added a del.icio.us sharing link to the Share This File list, and also reorganized things a bit so that Facebook, AIM, Digg and del.icio.us are all listed on the same line. Check it out here.
