I’ve been a Dropbox user for several years now. I rely on it more and more, and use USB thumb-drives less and less.

Dropbox has a referral system which gives you 500MB for each referral who joins and installs Dropbox, up to a max of 16GB (if you join after clicking the link above, I’ll get yet more space!). I’ve accrued an extra 3GB this way, and I use just 2.5 GB of my 5.75 GB, so I use the free version, as the number and size of my files don’t justify the Pro version.

But I was still glad to read in a recent blog post by paperless master Brooks Duncan that Dropbox have dropped (geddit?) their prices to compete with Google Drive and others.

I was particularly interested in some of the new features that have been added. Here’s Brooks:

New Sharing Features

Dropbox outlines their new features in their blog post, but the key changes are:

  • Password protection: You can now assign a password for a shared link. This is great! You’ve always been able to generate a link to a file or folder, but theoretically anyone who came across that link however unlikely that may be would be able to see your information. Now you can password protect that link. More on that here.
  • Expire shared links: Another great feature when it comes to going paperless. Often when we share a link to a file, the recipient only needs access for a short period. You’ve always been able to review and remove those shared files, but now you can set the link to expire automatically. Here is how it works.

Filepost offers the same service and there’s a Filepost Japan, too. I was toying with the idea of using Filepost when I read Brooks’ article. Filepost isn’t really a storage service like Dropbox, tho; it’s just for sharing files on a short-term basis. Back to Brooks:

  • Folder Premissions: One of the problems with sharing a file with someone via a file syncing service like Dropbox is that if the person deletes or modifies the file, it is deleted or modified for you too. You mark a recipient as read only so they can see a folder but can’t mess it up. More on that here.

via Dropbox Cuts Pricing And Adds Great Sharing Features.

I recommend DocumentSnap Solutions’ Paperless Document Organization Guides. Be sure to try DocumentSnap’s free email course on going paperless first before buying his products. Sign up for it on his homepage.