Cloud storage services Dropbox ambitions: cross-platform synchronization program data

Lead: The Internet edition of Wired magazine said today that Cross-platform cloud storage service provider Dropbox plans to break through the simple file storage industry and expand into the field of program data synchronization. For example, through collaboration with developers, the company can synchronize the progress of games such as Angry Birds with different platforms to achieve seamless convergence.

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Replace hard Drive

Whether you're using an ipad, an Android phone, or a pc,dropbox, you want to provide a hard drive that you can use anytime. But if this ambitious goal is to be achieved, it must be aided by software developers around the world.

Since its release 6 years ago, Dropbox has opened up a niche market to help users save and share content. The service currently has 175 million users, but there are plenty of improvements to work with developers, which is why the company held its first developer conference in San Francisco this week.

Dropbox estimates that only 500 programmers have participated in the conference. But the company wants to offer them something unprecedented: an easy way to retrieve and attach files from the cloud, and a way to save program data-a bit like the Windows Registry or Macintosh Preferences system on a PC.

"We're replacing the hard drive. Dropbox CEO Dru Houston Drew Houston said, "I don't mean to say you'll find Dropbox in there after you open the MacBook, and our goal is to be the spiritual successor to the hard drive." ”

Dropbox has done a lot to make it easier for people to share and modify files across different handsets without serious errors. This sounds simple, but when synchronizing files between different operating systems and different devices, the problem is very easy to see. For example, what happens when two people edit and store the same file in a shared folder at the same time? "We have accumulated a lot of experience over the years and have overcome many difficulties." "How should this knowledge be packaged so that all developers can benefit from it?" said Houston. ”

Promotional Plug-ins

The first step is to simplify the process of saving and uploading Dropbox files in applications and Web sites, which need to be implemented through two plug-ins, which Dropbox call drop-in.

Dropbox wants software developers to quickly add "save to Dropbox" or "Share from Dropbox" options on the site.

Thanks to this technology, Dropbox was integrated with Yahoo email this April. Yahoo uses a drop-in named Saver to create a "save to Dropbox" feature that allows e-mail users to quickly save attachments such as photos, PDF documents, and business documents to Dropbox accounts. "This is actually the ' save ' button for the post-PC era. Houston said.

The opposite is the drop-in named Chooser. Through this plugin, yahoo email users can use the "Share from Dropbox" option, from the Dropbox account to the mail to import attachments.

David McDowell, senior director of Yahoo's email product management, said drop-in could greatly simplify the process by which Yahoo David Macdowell 300 million of e-mail users to Dropbox. He did not provide specific data, but said that millions of people have Dropbox account number and Yahoo email account binding. Now, Yahoo is also adding "share from Dropbox" to Android clients. The company expects to add the "Save to Dropbox" feature to the client as soon as Dropbox develops the appropriate Android drop-in.

Overall, this is a good deal for Yahoo. "Drop-in provides developers with a lot of help, including authentication, file and folder structure, file selection, and more." All the user interfaces are integrated into the drop-in. "McDowell said.

Dropbox said that, in addition to Yahoo, Shutterstock, Check, Outbox and LOUDR and other application developers are beginning to use these drop-in. At this week's meeting, the company wants to sign up with more developers.

Program Sync

But Dropbox's goal is not just to create a website that will allow people to store photos and videos for later sharing. Now the company has also tweaked Dropbox so that developers can use it to store information about software programs, and may even be a revolutionary service for mobile users.

Dropbox will launch a new API (application programming Interface) at the Tuesday developer Conference to facilitate developers to store program metadata (such as the "Angry Birds" checkpoint you just finished). Houston says this feature, called Datastores, can help Dropbox expand the scope of services, no longer limited to file and information storage. In his view, no company, except Dropbox, had the ability to store such data between different devices and systems.

Datastores will run in the background, so the application can run as usual even if it is not connected to Dropbox. However, when the connection is complete, the information can be synchronized to the Dropbox server to facilitate users to synchronize data between PCs, tablets and mobile phones.

"These measures help tie all your equipment together. Houston said. This means that Angry Birds will automatically remember your progress on the Android phone, and then switch to the ipad to continue running.

However, this may be difficult to popularize in the short term. It still takes a while for developers to use this feature of Dropbox. If they are accustomed to this model, Dropbox can become the core element of the new generation of Internet application, and bring more friendly experience to the users. Just imagine: When you replace your iphone with an Android phone, all the data can be copied.

It seems unrealistic now, but it is a dream for hackers.