Building for Scale

myDataBus has been growing like crazy lately, thank you to all of you!! We are excited about continuing to expand our service and have a long list of features in store for you, but right now we are concentrating on improving the stability and scalability of our service as it grows.

Recent improvements include:
* Huge increase in bandwidth: The site was starting to really slow down during peak times, but in the last week you should have noticed a vast improvement in upload and download speeds. We are positioned now with plenty of room for growth and a quick upgrade route for adding more as we need it.
* Fixes for lost session problems: Some of our users have been having trouble logging into or staying logged into myDataBus.com; we have made some changes that have eliminated almost all of those cases, the only known outstanding issue is with Proxy servers at certain ISPs. We are working on several potential fixes, let us know if you are still seeing the 'logout problem!'
* Aliases for Public file and Photo Album links: In an effort to make public files and photo albums easier to use we have made the links much shorter, and have added an 'alias' feature to your account. We hope the new shorter links are more likely to survive email in particular!

I hope all of you have had a chance to try out our new photo album feature! We'll be adding more options for displaying your photos in different ways, if you have a favorite gallery style let us know.

Thanks again to all of our users for using myDataBus.com, and remember to tell your friends how to get their own 5 GigaBytes of FREE file storage!!

Growing up

It seems there comes a time in the life of every growing internet company where this post is made. A rite of passage of sorts...

So yesterday we completed a round of updates and fixes that we have been working on over the last week to address issues with stability and compatibility that we think will make your user experience a LOT better on all platforms. Some of the major known issues that have been resolved over the last 2 weeks include:

* Problems with Internet Explorer logging users out after any 8 clicks on the site.
* Problems with uploads not completing, or telling the user that a session has expired at the end of an upload. (And the related problem that a number of users have had uploading files > 250MB)
* Files uploaded by Internet Explorer users sometimes only displaying in tree view, but not being downloadable.
* New signup and change password emails being filtered as spam by many ISPs.
* Form elements from other pages showing up on the 'New Folder' and 'Web Load' forms in Internet Explorer.

There have been many other minor fixes, interface changes and server upgrades that we hope will all contribute to a GREAT user experience at myDataBus.com!

Thanks for growing with us,

the myDataBus.com team

That's right, we are giving stuff away!

Congratulations to the weekly winners randomly chosen from our “Tell a Friend & Win” contest! (You know who you are.)

Want to get in on the action and win $20? It’s simple. Just log into your account and click the "Tell a Friend" button; enter your friend’s name and email address to be entered into the weekly drawing! Invite as many friends as you wish. Your name will be entered into the drawing each time you send an invitation. Plus, if your friend joins myDataBus, they could win too!

So what are you waiting for? Tell a Friend & Win!

So who really gets the job done?

Phil Yanov, self-described "Author, Speaker, Technologist, Raconteur" writes about us in a blog entry about recording podcasts:

"One of the segments was about online storage and backup services. We talked about Box.net, X-Drive, and Servosity. Eric and I actually use mydatabus to transfer the big audio files that eventually become my podcasts."

While we would love to have been part of the show, it is nice to demonstrate that myDataBus.com has the features and the flexibility to get things done in the real world!

Behind the radio...

The case of the missing public files- Solved!

Over the past few weeks we have had scattered reports from some users about public files 'disappearing' from myDataBus accounts. We were finally able to isolate, reproduce and fix the problem yesterday. If you are one of the users that has 'lost' public files thanks for your patience, and share away!

Facebook and myDataBus.com; two great sites that go great together!

Calling all facebook.com users; now you can access your facebook account from within myDataBus! We are participating in a new developer program launched by facebook that allows us to tie certain information from your facebook account into your myDataBus account. This is a 'beta' program, which means that for now the features are somewhat limited, but as the facebook interface matures we will be adding more and more ways to share files with your friends through myDataBus.com.

In this first release you can:
* Copy information from facebook on the signup page for new myDataBus accounts
* See profiles of group members who have facebook accounts
* See the number of posts on your wall
* See number of total messages, and unread count
* See the number of Pokes (total and unseen)
* View your facebook photo albums
* View pictures of you on facebook

Use and enjoy-- and look for more great features as this program expands!

5 GigaBytes now included for FREE!

You probably have noticed by now, last week we have upgraded all free accounts to 5 GB. Enjoy!

Preview of the Back-To-School release

So our next release isn't due out until the middle of next week, but we are so excited that it's hard to keep quiet! Headlining the new release is the announcement that we are going to increase all free accounts to 5 GIGABYTES.

A Teaser for other features coming next week:

• Web Load will add any file from the web directly to your account, saving you from having to first download to your computer


• Group files can now have folders


• Permissions will allow you to create different kinds of Groups


• myDataBus Mobile will give you access to your files from your phone or other portable device

And that's just the beginning!! Can't spoil the whole surprise, now can we? Let's just say that in honor of school starting we have been concentrating on features that students will appreciate.

New- Virus Scanning on all files!

Today we introduced virus scanning on all files uploaded to myDataBus.com. Breathe just a little bit easier knowing that not only are your files clean; but so are files shared by your group members and others.

Virus-Free file sharing from myDataBus.com; one more way we are working to change the way you use and share your files online!

Tell your friends, and Win!

So you are one of the lucky ones, the enlightened few, you grabbed your own free account at myDataBus.com. Now we'd like to reward you for spreading the word! Each week myDataBus.com will be giving away a $20 gift certificate to someone chosen at random from all of the users who sent invitations to their friends using the form on our website. Pick your reward- the iTunes store, Amazon.com, EBGames.com, or a credit directly to your PayPal account. Even better- if the person you invited actually signed up for myDataBus, they win too!

Be a hero (and pick up a little something for yourself), tell your friends today!

Public Shared Files!

It gives me great pleasure to introduce... Public Files from myDataBus.com! Sometimes called 'hot-links,' or 'direct links,' this has been the #1 feature request of myDataBus users.

Select any number of files from your account and make them public; myDataBus will generate a selection of links you can use to share those files with anyone. Sell on eBay? Use myDataBus to host images for your auctions. Have a mySpace account? Link to photos at myDataBus from your profile. Are you active on LiveJournal? Facebook? Discussion forums? Link away!

Our photo features are the most advanced; choose a picture from your files, and myDataBus will re-size it for you! Choose from a selection of standard sizes, and let the site do the work for you- without modifying your original file. You can even create links to several different sizes of the same image!

For each file the link generator will give you:

• The URL for your file


• An HTML formatted link to your file


• An EMBED link to include your Audio or Video file directly into another web page


• A BBCode link to your file (Discussion boards, etc)

There is no restriction on the type, size or number of files you can make 'Public' from your myDataBus account; and our 400MB per day traffic allowance is generous enough for all but the most popular of files.

Email, attachments, and updates, oh my!

Email is great for quick communication, but not such a good way to share files. If you have ever tried to email a large attachment you know what I mean- many ISPs block files larger than a few megabytes, friends still stuck on dialup hate you for clogging up their inboxes, some mail clients don't handle attached files well (winmail.dat anyone?)... To make matters worse the proliferation of viruses has forced anti-virus software to go on the offensive, at times blocking legitimate files because they might be infected.

This week's update includes the ability to select one or more files from your myDataBus listing and click to send out an email linking to them. Now you can send files of any size or type easily! Your friend receives a link to a page at myDataBus where they can download your files at their convenience.

We're really excited about the features we plan to add over the next few months, but we'd love to hear from you-- how do you use myDataBus? What would make it better? What is the one 'killer' feature that you would simply love to have? Let us know-- you can email updates@mydatabus.com any time with your suggestions, or use the support form at the site.

myDataBus.com version 2.0 Posted Today

The next time you log into your myDataBus account you may notice a few changes. Well, a lot of changes. Think 'Extreme Home Makeover' kind of changes. Some of the new features you will find include:

• Improved folder management; including the ability to nest folders


• Mulit-file upload; send as many as 10 files totaling up to 500MB at a time


• New "Tree" view to look at your files in a different way


• More options for sorting the file display


• Store notes about files and folders

We changed out a lot of the plumbing and wiring in this update also, so stay tuned for a many more new feature announcements in the coming weeks!

We're Open for Business. And everyone else...

That's right; as of today anyone can sign up at myDataBus.com and take advantage of 2 Gigabytes of FREE storage for sharing, backup, collaboration and more! Developed originally with the college student in mind, myDataBus.com has only allowed registrations from users who have a .edu email address. No longer! With the release of our newest version, myDatabus is ready to share vacation photos with your family, trade revisions of documents with clients, keep important business files in a secure off-site location, and much more!

So come on in, and see what uses you can think of for your myDataBus storage!

Coming Soon... myDataBus 2.0

There is a philosophy of software development that encourages developers to "release early and often." The idea being that the more you work on a project, the more work it will need; and the more features you try to put into each release, the less likely it is that you will ever actually finish. By releasing small updates frequently we can deliver features to our users faster, but perhaps more importantly we can watch to see what features our users are requesting and using. Our product becomes better when we participate in an ongoing dialog with users, releasing a few features ever couple of weeks and constantly adjusting to user feedback.

This time... we didn't do that. myDataBus 2.0 is a huge rewrite of how we treat files, folders and users; creating a platform for us to build a really exciting slate of features in the future. The team is very excited about this release, which is being wrapped up now... including the ability to upload multiple files at a time, create and manage nested folders, email files directly from your account, and much more! The 2.0 release also features an enhanced user interface with a more intuitive controls and navigation to give you more transparent access to do what you want with your files.

The biggest news of all for 2.0 may be that we have removed the registration restrictions on the site. You no longer need to be a student to sign up for myDataBus! As we have moved out of the early development and are increasingly confident of our architecture and site design we feel that it is time to invite anyone to take advantage of a better way to work and play using myDataBus.com.

So, keep an eye on this space for the announcement-- we'll be posting the new and improved myDataBus soon!

myDataBus.com is Live!!

It is always gratifying to see something take shape that you have worked very hard on. Here at myDataBus we have been working hard on the best tool we can imagine for sharing files and making your computing life easier, and are proud to announce that the site is live! Go sign up at www.mydatabus.com and see how easy it is to back up important files, post files that you need to access in computer labs or on other people's computers, and share files with your friends and classmates. Best of all, you get to use up to 2 gigabytes of space absolutely FREE!

You may have picked up that this site is for students-- myDataBus.com was designed for college students and developed by students. Our group collaboration features in particular benefit from our tight focus on how students work and play, and how sharing can benefit all kinds of academic and extra-curricular activities. So for now you cannot sign up for an account unless you have an email address from a college or university (ending in a .edu extension).

For now...

Watch this space for more information!!