14 DAY TRIAL // Dropbox recently debuted a greatly revamped website. The new site is cleaner, simpler to use, but also more powerful. It's more like an app than a website and makes file management a simpler task than it has ever been online.
Now, Dropbox is making another interesting addition, support for drag and drop. Simply grab a file from your computer, drag it over the Dropbox website and it will be uploaded to the folder you selected.
If you want to grab some files from another computer, there's never been an easier way, simply log into Dropbox, drag and drop the files and you're done, the files will be waiting for you on your computer back home or at work.
"Wanna see something awesome? If you use Chrome, Firefox, or Safari, you can now upload files by dragging them from your desktop onto the Dropbox website," Dropbox wrote.
"After Dropbox detects the upload, it’ll work its magic to get your stuff wherever you need it. This is just a small step toward giving you a simpler (and more fun!) dropbox.com," it added.
The feature only works in Chrome, Safari and Firefox since those are the only browsers that support drag-and-drop uploads, specifically the HTML5 Drag and Drop API that goes hand in hand with the HTML5 File API.
Gmail introduced drag and drop attachments a long time ago, and by now the technology has matured so there shouldn't be any problems. If anything, a lot more websites should be using it by now.
Uploading files, though it's been a common occurrence for more than a decade, is unnecessarily troublesome. Flash or Java uploaders do more harm than good. A standard upload API that allows users to send multiple large files at a time, without them having to install anything or use a bug ridden uploader, is a great improvement.