I have just launched Blink File. It’s overlapping a bit with the United Bimmer File Manager currently, however I have a feeling Blink File will eventually exceed UBFM because of it’s ease of use, auto-thumbnailing, multiple-simultaneous file uploading, and no quota limit. Here’s an example of it in action:

Blink File is designed to be as simple as possible to use. It can host anything from images (any size) to videos to music to programs to pdfs and other documents. There are no limits on the file extention. The cool part is the system can recognize over 400 different file types, and responds appropriately. For example, if it detects you uploading a JPG file, it’ll look at the dimensions, and if it’s a large file, it’ll automatically generate a nice thumbnail complete with the bottom black text bar, showing the size and dimensions of the original file. When you click on the thumbnail (from the source code it generates automatically for forum use), it’ll open in and render a larger version of the file on Blink File’s servers, which you can click on to instantly see full-size. Erm, that’s kind of wordy, but when you try it out, you’ll see what I mean. If you upload a video file and try to view it, it’ll automatically detect it’s a video and generate an embedded video preview control on the website (the little video box built in to the site) based on what type of video it is (the site knows the difference in a quicktime and windows media video, for example). That way anyone can watch the video on the site itself… however if you’d rather download it directly to your harddrive, there’s a link for that as well. If you upload a program for example, the view page just has a direct download link with no previews of any kind. It’s smart.

Another cool part of Blink File is the ability to email files to someone else. On the homepage, when you use the right-side form, it’ll upload a single file and send the recipient a very nice looking HTML email with a link to the download page. If it’s an image you’re sending them, it’ll even include a thumbnail of the full-sized image in the email itself. The verbage of the email is also programmed to be intelligent and dynamic to ensure it never ends up in the spam folder.

Now the downside. Hosting files with an unlimited size, no user quotas, unlimited downloads, etc. can hurt bandwidth and server harddrive space. You guys know me pretty well, and you know I hate advertising on community-focused websites unless I absolutely have to, which is why United Bimmer still doesn’t have any advertising (sponsors don’t count, I’m talking like google adwords or something) after being around for over a year with total bandwidth bills in the thousands. However, I unfortunately had to add Adbrite ads to Blink File because of it’s unusally expensive setup. They’re not very bad and only appear on the view-download page… no where else on the site, though I do still allow direct hotlinking for files under 1MB (if you try to hotlink a file over 1MB, it just redirects you to the view page where you can download it). Sorry about that.

Anyway, I think Blink File turned out great and if you guys have any suggestions or find any bugs in it, let me know. Thanks!

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