

Dropbox introduces new API features - dmrd
https://blog.dropbox.com/2013/07/dbx/

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minimaxir
_" [...] over 175 million people using Dropbox and more than a billion files
synced each day"_

Assuming that the "1 billion" refers to number of sync events, that statistic
implies that on average, Dropbox users only make changes to ~6 files in their
Dropbox per day.

That doesn't make any sense at all. Dropbox must have a _massive_ Power Law at
work.

EDIT: I might be wrong with my interpretation of "files synced": it could mean
_distinct_ numbers of files that receive a sync event atleast once per day or
files _added_ per day to a Dropbox which are then synced. In both cases, I
believe the ~6/day statistic and I apologize.

~~~
smackfu
Does 6 seem high or low to you?

~~~
minimaxir
If a user is using Dropbox as backup/sync as opposed to free long-term
storage, 6 seems unbelieveably low.

I store my IM logs in my Dropbox. Every time a message is sent, 2 files are
changed (the message log and the overall database). One conversation alone can
fire _100_ sync events.

And if you're like me and are a Ctrl+S addict when working on important papers
or code, each Ctrl+S is a sync event.

~~~
arrrg
I think you are definitely the outlier here. Most people I have seen using
Dropbox store some documents there, not even all of them. Just those they want
to have synced.

That’s also more or less the default for Dropbox, that’s how it’s set up and
guides its users. It’s just some folder in your user folder, not even the
documents folder. By default you have to actively think to put stuff in there.

I think you might just have a wrong picture of who uses Dropbox. Storing IM
conversations or even _all_ of your documents on there is quite esoteric.

Also, if you think of a typical home computer of someone who has a job then
there aren’t going to be many files on that thing. A few letters to cancel
something or other (but even that is done mostly by email these days), photos,
videos and maybe some music (but many people don’t put that in their Dropbox
because there is just no space) … that’s not much. You don’t need to create
files to go to Facebook or read the news or get weather info or watch the
stocks (minus Facebook that’s exactly the stuff my dad does on the family
laptop and I installed Dropbox on both PCs in their house to keep their rarely
changed documents folder in sync).

Yeah, students probably have more documents but I have even seen those only
use Dropbox for collaborative stuff – not all the rest they do.

It’s not that those people don’t get value from Dropbox or don’t use it, they
just don’t need it that often.

~~~
minimaxir
Fair enough. I admit I'm paranoid about my file integrity. :P

Although if the behavior that you describe is the typical user behavior, then
that's not a good thing for Dropbox's attempts to convert free users to paying
users.

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ryguytilidie
Man, I really don't want to come off as a hater at all, but I never got the
dropbox hype. They seriously have a developer conference now? Yikes.

~~~
minimaxir
What about the Box and Twilio conferences?

~~~
foolfoolz
it's become the hot thing for enterprise companies to host conferences. a good
excuse to expense a weekend in california.

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bsimpson
It seems strange to me that they are bragging about syncing between mobile and
the web, but the only web SDK they provide is for JavaScript - I can't even
find REST documentation for the Datastore API.

I love the idea of cloud apps that use user-provided datastores. It makes it
both cheaper for a startup (because they can crowdsource their data storage)
and easier for users to control what data services have about them. Google
Drive already provides a service whereby I can store a user's data in his
Drive account without cluttering his filesystem with my app's metadata.
Dropbox Datastores sounds like a similar feature, but it's way less appealing
to me if I can't talk to it from my backend.

~~~
jzcoder
I agree. The first thing I did when I saw this announcement was look for the
REST API. Surely, those existing platform specific libraries are built on a
REST API, so why not document and release them.

~~~
pavpanchekha
It's in beta; don't want to nail down the protocol.

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peteysd
Seems like this is in direct competition with Parse.

I look forward to kicking the tires, since I've been looking for a solid
replacement for Parse ever since Facebook bought them.

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joshuaellinger
Can anyone who uses the Dropbox API tell me if these features are significant?

From my .Net developer's point of view, I am not seeing why these aren't just
weak versions of the Azure storage capabilities or Amazon's S3. It's nice to
be able to target DropBox as a storage location but that's a pretty rare use-
case for me. Especially since their security store is incomplete.

~~~
danielsiders
I think fundamentally Dropbox's move away from the filesystem by exposing an
API like this and through application acquisitions (music and mail) is about
trying to become the Apple of personal data.

Dropbox has done a phenomenal job of taking a complex challenge (file sync)
and making an incredibly simple user experience. Extending that strategy into
other common tasks with new and purchased apps could be very successful. The
big element missing is BaaS (back-end as a service) for data and events that
aren't files. Given the poor track record of services like iCloud, you can
imagine a lot of developers adopting the Dropbox API and in a few years most
iOS devices might be running a combination of official Dropbox apps
(replacements for itunes, mail, and maybe calendar) and many other essentially
stateless apps that use the Dropbox API for sync and storage.

In the short term this could be very convenient for users and developers, but
in the long run it creates another monolithic, centralized platform. This kind
of functionality needs to be delivered as a protocol so users can choose
service providers who compete on price, features, and privacy instead of being
citizens of a particular platform (Facebook, Apple, Google, MSFT, or
increasingly Dropbox).

~~~
epochwolf
> This kind of functionality needs to be delivered as a protocol so users can
> choose service providers who compete on price, features, and privacy instead
> of being citizens of a particular platform (Facebook, Apple, Google, MSFT,
> or increasingly Dropbox).

How would this benefit dropbox?

~~~
danielsiders
Not sure which you mean:

\- Their proprietary BaaS benefits them by consolidating all user data on
their service and creates a greater incentive for users to upgrade to paying
(or higher priced) plans.

\- Alternatively, structuring this as a portocol (as we've tried to do with
Tent [https://tent.io](https://tent.io)) benefits the entire ecosystem. It's a
little like asking how the web would benefit AOL. Protocols can bust
monopolies but increase the overall value of an ecosystem. You might go from
controlling 50% of n to controlling 10% of 20*n. Open ecosystems can encourage
innovation in ways that centralized services can't, often to the benefit of
the centralized players.

