brandondawson.org Drupal Website Developer and Consultant

Does “File Hosting” *really* belong to “the cloud”?

I was downloading a series of free add-ons for a particular piece of software, when I was forced into downloading it from one of those "file hosting" services. This got me thinking, because it was mildly annoying to have to use such a service for a file that was only 1.8 megabytes in size, after a sixty-second wait due to my not being a "Premium" member.

Of course, hosts like RapidHost and their kind derive a large amount of their traffic from, shall we say, less than fully legal data. But to see something that was 100% legal, and 100% free, being offered on such a service....well, suffice it to say I spent the 60 seconds thinking, I hope, somewhat productively.

Because this is a market that "old-school" traditional web hosts can handle, as well. The people putting files like these on download services do not need privacy; in my specific case, they actually had it linked from their online profile. And they probably have an account on that service, which means they're willing to pay for the service.