In 37Signals' ubiquitious web app design philosophy book, "Getting Real," they talk about "underdoing" your competition. "Do less than your competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to everyone else. Instead of oneupping, try one-downing. Instead of outdoing, try underdoing," they write in big bold letters in the second chapter.
New York-based Davidville is probably best known for their excellent tumblelogging service Tumblr. But before Tumblr, they made a splash, albeit a smaller one, with Senduit, a file uploading service that's stripped down to basics. Whether or not Davidville has read "Getting Real," they certainly prescribe to some of the ideas laid out in that book.
Senduit is a very simple, and unadorned file uploading site. It is immediately apparent what the site does and how to get things done. There are no ads on the main page and there is no sign up required. Instead users are greeted by simple, two part instructions, a textbox for choosing the file to upload, a drop down menu for choosing when the file should expire, and a big "upload" button. That's it.
Files uploaded to Senduit are automatically removed from the server in 30 minutes to 1 week depending on what you specify when you upload. Senduit accepts any type of file up to 100mb in size. During uploads, Senduit displays an "upload in progress" bar (which sadly, does not display actual progress -- the only thing I wish the service did differently). Once uploaded, you are sent to a page with the URL for your file, which is short and resembles a TinyURL address. I.e., http://www.senduit.com/XXXXXX -- where 'XXXXXX' is a random string of numbers and letters.
The download page is the only page on the site with any advertising. Downloads start automatically and Senduit's servers are very speedy: I routinely get 1800-2000k/sec (note: I have a 20mbps connection, but even friends with slower connections report good download speeds on files I send through Senduit).
Compared to similar services like YouSendIt, DropSend, or the ad-cluttered MegaUpload, Senduit is a breath of fresh air. It is simple, clean, and exceptionally easy to use. There is certainly room for sites like YouSendIt and DropSend as well, which both offer premium services such permanent file hosting, branded services, and larger file size caps. But for quickly sending small to medium sized files, nothing beats Senduit.
Comments
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Quite useful site. Sometimes it is good than you can upload what ever file and set its expiry date...
Posted by: Meras | April 25, 2007 10:31 AM
Yes, I like the expiration date too. I don't want a file sitting on another server for as long as that server is around.
Posted by: Jason - CleverTools.com | April 25, 2007 11:05 AM
mmMMmmMMmm, FiOS.
Posted by: Dan Grossman | April 25, 2007 11:47 AM
We quietly launched a free file sharing service that supports file expirations and password protection. It's at http://www.freesender.com
Cheers,
-- Greg
Posted by: Greg Arnette | April 25, 2007 1:40 PM
> for quickly sending small to medium sized files, nothing beats Senduit.
Actually, I find email works pretty damned well :-)
Terry
Posted by: Terry Jones | April 25, 2007 2:38 PM
Terry... I had to send someone a 34mb file (what I would call "medium sized") this morning. I think everyone involved was glad I used Senduit instead of email. ;)
Posted by: Josh Catone | April 25, 2007 2:53 PM
fwiw, at the day job (JibJab) we've used both YouSendIt and ShareFile, and have much preferred ShareFile (just seemed that file uploads and downloads are more stable for large media files).
But, thanks for the reco on SendUIt...
Posted by: Dave Schappell | April 25, 2007 9:50 PM
another service is needed on senduit.com in my opinion:
after you selected the expiry,the time-expiry time should be shown instantly on the web. so people who want to share the file can tell others the time before when they can get it.
Posted by: tao | April 25, 2007 10:33 PM
Could you define the size attributes of "small" and "medium".
THANKS!
Posted by: Elizabeth M | April 26, 2007 9:17 AM
Let's just say anything over 3mb and under 100mb. ;)
Posted by: Josh Catone | April 26, 2007 9:27 AM
YouSendIt Inc. raises USD 10 Million - staggering amount for ubiquitous service
Posted by: Daniel | May 4, 2007 5:32 AM