Public File Download Changes

Last week you may have noticed that we made some changes to the way public files are downloaded. After watching for a while to see how it has impacted both our users and the people who come to download your files we have decided to go ahead and make some permanent changes to Public Files.

Background
The way our Public Files have worked in the past is what we will call Direct Linking; when a user clicks on a link the file begins to download right away in their browser. The change we are making is that many files which used to be direct linked will now point to a page on our servers. That page will initiate a download in the background, and show the user a link to manually start a download if for some reason their browser blocks the automatic one.

Who is impacted by this change?
First of all, Pro accounts (any account where you have paid for upgraded service) will see no changes to the way their public files work, just as before all Public links will be direct links. We are also going to continue serving all JPG, GIF and PNG files directly, so that you can continue to use myDataBus to host images on other websites as many of you do now. (ebay, CraigsList, blogs, etc)

What do I need to do now?
For most of you nothing; Pro users can ignore this and enjoy yet another perk of paid membership. The group that will be directly affected by this change are Basic Account users who host audio and video files that are embedded in other websites. You can still link to your files and users will be able to access them; but embedding those files (mp3, Flash Video, Quicktime, etc) into your pages will no longer work unless you choose to upgrade to a Pro account. Remember, you can get a Pro account for as little as $9.95 per year, and you will also get larger file uploads, no advertising, and 10GB of storage space! Log into your account and click on the 'Upgrade' link at the top of the screen today!

Why are you doing this?
Fair question; we do think that for some people downloading public files this does provide a more fluid download experience- but let's be honest, the main reason has to do with capturing eyeballs. By sending users first to a page on our site we are able to promote our service to more potential new users, generate increased advertising revenue, and take advantage of other opportunities to monetize traffic. Providing a service like myDataBus takes a lot of resources, and the more revenue we are able to generate the better service we can offer to you, our users!

Thanks again for using myDataBus, and keep the feedback coming, we love hearing from you!

Public File Limits Update

Older users who still have increased public file bandwidth limits will be dropped to 5GB/day today. If you have signed up in the last month or so and have a 1GB/day limit (or if you don't use public files!) you can ignore this message-- for the rest of you please make a note that we will be finishing the transition next weekend, the rest of the way down to 1GB.

If you have been using the extra bandwidth you may start to receive emails from our system warning you that you are about to exceed your limit; or you can check your current usage by clicking on the "Settings" tab.

Need more? Upgrade!
We have made it easy to design your own service plan at myDataBus.com; log into your account and click the upgrade link to find out just how inexpensive it can be to add storage or transfer to meet your needs.

For more information about limits and why they are being reduced see the blog entry announcing the change:
http://mydatabus.blogspot.com/2007/02/new-limits-on-public-files.html

Once again we thank you all for using myDataBus.com to store and share your files; and we are looking forward to some great new features to come!

New limits on Public Files

As part of the changes we have introduced this week we are announcing that free accounts at myDataBus.com will now be limited to 1GB of transfer per day for Public Files. As always there are no limits or quotas affecting transfer of your own files, or files from groups you belong to.

Those of you who have been around for a while know that we introduced public files with a very high limit so that we could evaluate how the public files would be used by our customers (20GB). We hear the groans out there from a few of our power-users, but reasonable limits are of course necessary for the long-term success of our site. We do want to thank you all and soften the blow for those that will be impacted by the new limits-- all of our existing customers will continue to enjoy a limit of 20GB per day for a limited time.

The sliver lining in these changes (you will hear much more about this later!) is that we are nearly finished converting our users to Amazon.com's S3 storage service. This means that your files are actually stored and delivered from Amazon data centers. Why should you care? Because it's fast. Very fast... if your account has been converted and you have a high speed connection you have probably already noticed that files download much faster. It also means that file downloads don't affect the myDataBus.com website, keeping it much more responsive even when a user posts a very popular file!

By way of comparison, our free accounts offer about 30GB per month of transfer for public files (sometimes called 'hosted files' by other services). Most of our competitors offer far less (or none at all!) for their free plans.

We hope you continue to enjoy using myDataBus.com, and we continue to welcome your feedback about our service!

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.