The TwileShare Blog

Welcome to the TwileShare Blog

• Sunday, January 15, 2012

  Social file sharing - 5 top tools

  Call us crazy, but we’d like to point out five really nice services for social file sharing (or storing files in the cloud with the option of sharing). A little competition is a good thing and a lot of competition is a sign that social file sharing is on its way up. So below are 5 top tools for sharing files socially.

  Box
  Online file storage and more from this extremely popular service. The range of features and ability to share large files are great.

  Ge.tt
  This is one of our favourite and most used file sharing sites. There’s no sign up required, you can share the link before the file has uploaded and add files after you’ve shared the link.

  Dropbox
  The undisputed champion of cloud file storage. We have never met a single person whose life hasn’t been made easier by Dropbox. The only down side is that sharing a link to a file feels a little clunky.

  CloudApp
  We haven’t used this service much but CloudApp is getting rave reviews. The easy sharing and local file integration look killer.

  TwileShare
  You didn’t think we’d leave ourselves out, did you? We’ve been described as the best way to share files on Twitter so we thought we deserved a mention. And of all the services, TwileShare is the simplest to use when it comes to sharing files on Twitter.

  Let us know if there are any social file sharing apps you can’t live without.

• Friday, January 13, 2012

  Some improvements to TwileShare

  If you’re a regular TwileShare user you may have noticed a few changes we rolled out last month. As the service grows we needed a way to display file uploads and this is one of the changes we have made, along with a number of other tweaks. The list of amends includes:

  • A redesign of the homepage that acts as an activity stream of files uploaded by our lovely users. From this stream you can see details of the file, tweet and user for each upload as well as clicking through to the file view page.
  • Commenting on an uploaded file now sends an @ reply to that Twitter user.
  • Each member now has a dedicated profile page showing the files they have uploaded, thumbnail (if an image), view figures and a link through to the file page. Any username also links through to this page so you can see what fellow members have been up to.
  • Some improvements to the log in process and content throughout the site.

  As always we would love to hear your feedback and any suggestions you might have.

• Tuesday, September 6, 2011

  Upload PDF files to Twitter

  After just over 3 months of being open to everyone, we’re seeing a number of different file types being uploaded and shared on Twitter, with a clear leader: the humble PDF. So we thought it would be worthwhile restating the ease of which you can share PDFs on Twitter.

  But first a look at the figures. Out of all files that have been shared on TwileShare, a whopping 50.7% are PDFs. To put that in perspective, Word documents are the next favourite with 12.7% of uploads, followed by the lowly Excel file at 2.5%. This goes to show how important the PDF format is when sharing information.

  So, just how easy is it to share PDF files on Twitter using TwileShare?

  1. Sign in to TwileShare using your Twitter account.
  2. On the ‘Share a file’ page, choose the file you’d like to share from your hard drive.
  3. Write the tweet text.
  4. Click the ‘Share it’ button.

  That’s it. TwileShare will upload your file, automatically generate a custom short URL and send out a tweet to your followers. We’ve been described as the best service out there for sharing files on Twitter and we aim to stay that way.

  In fact, you could even share PDFs (or other files) on social networks, like Facebook or LinkedIn, by uploading the file to TwileShare and copying the handy short URL. Just remember to uncheck the ‘Post to Twitter’ checkbox so a tweet isn’t sent automatically.

• Sunday, August 28, 2011

  Getting our Groove on - new support feature

  We’re delighted to introduce a new support feature from fellow start up Groove. When you log in to TwileShare you’ll notice a new tab in the bottom right hand corner of your browser:

  

  This will allow you to easily send us questions, suggestions, problems or bugs, which are logged in our new ticketing system and allocated to the relevant person at TwileShare. What this means in real terms is that we’ll be able to support customers across email, the web, mobile, live chat and Twitter to offer the best possible service.

  So take a look and use the new tool to send us any thoughts (or bugs!) you have. And a huge thank you to Alex at Groove for the personal help in getting us set up.

• Thursday, July 21, 2011

  Use Twitter to free up your inbox

  According to research carried out by The Radicati Group last year, the number of email accounts worldwide is set to increase from 2.9 billion to 3.8 billion by 2014¹. Additionally, the average corporate user sends 110 emails per day. That’s a whole lot of email.

  Add to this Osterman Research findings that 20-25% of all emails sent contain attachments² and you have an incredibly high volume of email that contains files of one kind or another. Taking the lowest figure of 20% would mean 580 million emails with attachments were sent last year alone.

  Results from the same Osterman Research study found an even more alarming figure – that attachments account for 98% of bits (due to their file size) sent through corporate email systems. This is because emails without attachments are made up of less bits since they are primarily text based.

  This is alarming stuff and files are only getting larger so it’s likely the trend will continue to rise. Not only that, but the over-reliance on email as a mechanism for file storage and sharing causes significant problems³, particularly in a corporate environment. Management is more difficult and IT control is stretched, but perhaps more importantly, cost increases with the need for more storage space.

  The emergence of social media and related services can help a great deal with this type of modern-day problem. With TwileShare, for instance, it is now possible to free up space in your inbox using Twitter. We store files of many different kinds in a readable format, along with a handy short URL so that the only thing you need to share is a link (whether by email, text or on social networks). This greatly reduces the reliance on email server and local hard drive storage. In addition, you get extra benefits of viewing statistics, sharing and comments. Beat that email.

  As social media use and 3rd party applications continue to grow, we’ll see more useful services being developed to help solve problems like file storage. And here at TwileShare we’ll keep improving our service to do our part in making online life easier.

  If you’d like to find out more about how TwileShare can help your company free up email space through branded channels please get in touch.
  

  ¹Source: Email Statistics Report, 2010; The Radicati Group, Inc.
  ²Source: Results of a Survey on the Use of Email, Social Networking and Other Applications; Osterman Research, Inc.; 2010
  ³Source: Why You Need a Better Way To Manage Email Attachments; Osterman Research, Inc.; 2010

• Monday, June 6, 2011

  TwileShare is open to everyone

  We’re delighted to announce that TwileShare is out of its invite-only phase, meaning anyone and everyone can sign up - all you need is a Twitter account and you’re good to go.

  We’d like to say a special thank you to the following beta testers, whose prolific use and fabulous feedback helped us to improve the service:

  @DanielQuiroga
  @120pgs
  @Tobalcriado
  @horno
  @matteinn
  @Jeanise
  @parweb
  @jatinsapra
  @rabbiton
  @hsoumen
  @borjacapella
  @joancastineira
  @KWLafayette
  @stuartwhitman
  @kyaylali
  @moui
  @ZwarteTovenaar
  @AndrewAvery70
  @petebouch
  @knowliz
  @yeeheecom
  @meulie
  @let5ch
  @DannyRohrdanz
  @CatherinVentura
  @ericmieras
  @jfrickuga
  @ghalfacree
  @DialMforBerlin
  @shawnz
  @Joxebus
  @vindaRd
  @etcgraphics
  @AdamantineEgo
  @ecstaticsid
  @turutosiya
  @Dirtymota
  @kshald

  Of course, we still have a lot to do and the site will remain in beta for now but we’ve reached an important step. We couldn’t have done it without the people above and the thousands of users who signed up to the invite-only beta.

  So thank you from everyone at TwileShare.

• Friday, June 3, 2011

  Share eBooks on Twitter

  We recently announced the ability to share PowerPoint files on Twitter after a number of requests. Now we’ve added support for sharing eBooks in the EPUB format. Like other text-based files EPUB documents will be displayed in the page using the Scribd viewer.

  Of course, copyrighted material shouldn’t be uploaded. As always, let us know if there are other formats you think we should introduce.

• Wednesday, May 11, 2011

  Share PowerPoint files on Twitter

  We’ve now added support for sharing PowerPoint files on Twitter with TwileShare, including PPT and PPTX formats. A few people have asked for this so we’re hoping it’ll come in useful.

  We’ll be adding support for more file formats over the coming weeks so let us know in the comments or on Twitter if there are any particular files you need to share and we’ll consider adding them.

  Enjoy!

• Thursday, May 5, 2011

  TwileShare Usage Indicator

  Up to now it hasn’t been possible to see how much space you’re using on your TwileShare account (not without getting your calculator out anyway). That has all changed with our delicious new usage indicator, conveniently located in the navigation bar:

  

  Given that we have a generous 1GB storage limit, most people will never get near a full bar (give it a try). So here’s what it will look like if you do manage to fill your account:

  

  Pretty, huh? Feel free to let us know on Twitter if you see any problems after testing this new feature.

• Tuesday, April 26, 2011

  Some visual improvements to TwileShare

  We’ve been busy testing TwileShare over the last couple of months since launch (thanks again to all our beta testers) and are close to coming out of the invite-only beta. In response to testing and feedback we’ve made a bunch of subtle visual changes that will hopefully make the TwileShare experience even better.

  The changes made include:

  • General styling improvements throughout the site including icons, text, layout and rollover effects.
  • Nicer confirmation and error notifications.
  • A much improved file upload form.
  • A better and more readable layout when viewing files including wider display of PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets and other files (a lot of people asked for this one).
  • Friendlier supporting page layout and styling.
  • Cross-browser corrections.

  As always, we really appreciate the feedback we get so do let us know any responses to the above and further changes you’d like to see.