We wrote about Box.net a long time ago when we did a wrapup of online storage startups, and again in October 2006 when they raised a venture round from Draper Fisher Jurvetson. They’ve been keeping busy. Box.net now has 820,000 registered users and transfers 600,000 files per day.
Today they launched a new widget product. It’s effectively a public folder that can be customized and embedded in a web page. A logo can be added and a number of views are available. The folder can be password protected, and viewers can also optionally upload their own files as well (if the creator is a premium or pro account holder). Media files are automatically played when clicked, or they can be right-clicked and downloaded.
I’ve embedded an example folder below, although I’ve turned off file uploading. The files are examples only.
There are a number of potential uses for this, particularly for groups collaborating on documents or files. It’s also useful as a drop box for clients who need to transfer files, etc. Note that Box.net also has more customized versions of these widgets. See, for example, the widget about half way down this MySpace page.
Box.net offers a free account with 1 GB of storage and 10 GB of monthly bandwith. Premium accounts, which have no bandwidth restrictions, cost $8 per month and have 5GB of storage. A premium account, at $20/month, has 15GB of storage.
Disclosure: I am an investor and on the board of directors of a box.net competitor, Omnidrive.
http://www.box.net/static/flash/box_explorer.swf?widgetHash=216h26ija0
