Ten Minutes With MailBigFile March 9, 2007

Intro: MailBigFile is (in its basic version) a free service to send large (up to 512MB) files to other people without any hassle.

Executive summary: Lots of competition in this space, but as good as any, and remarkably hassle-free. Blessedly uncomplicated and apt name, but should be more transparent about who is behind it.

My 10 minutes: As with all these services, it’s pretty straightforward. There’s no need to register for the basic service — you can put your own email address and a message if you want, but you don’t have to. In this case, there’s no software to download, which is good. Just load the file and enter an email address and you’re off.

The “Send File” button changes to “Please wait” and that is the only indication you’ll get that something is happening. It doesn’t say ‘Don’t navigate away from this page” or anything like that, which it probably should. Once the file has been sent the page refreshes with a notification that the file has been scanned for viruses and is now ready for pickup by the recipient.

This is the free version. The Pro costs $20 a year and the Business version $50, which both offer faster uploads, multiple recipients, up to 2GB in file size and, in the case of the business account, a branded version.

The thing about these services is that it would be nice to know who it is you’re dealing with. First off, you’d like to be reasonably confident the file will arrive. So is this one guy in his bedsit, or a company with a decent server? Secondly, you want to be reasonably sure the file will not be intercepted on the way, and read by a bunch of people with bad ideas in mind. Thirdly, the person you’re sending the file to won’t be happy to find that their email address has found its way onto spam lists. So mailbigfile.com loses serious points on that front, in that their “about” and “press” pages don’t tell me anything about who they are.

Their WHOIS reveals that the service is the baby of a Suffolk, UK, -based company called Design Solution Limited, which have also launched a few other services including DocMonster, which lets your store and share your documents securely online. They sound to me like an OK company, but I shouldn’t have to dig for this information.

Their blog, which hasn’t been updated since December, calls mailbigfile “Web 2.0 compliant tool with AJAX-powered progress meter”. I must confess I didn’t see the meter.

Marks out of 10: 6