8 Ways To Make Use Of Drop.io

File-sharing is a complicated beast. Some files are too big to send in emails; some need to be seen by a lot of people; some need to be private; some should be public. There are a ton of different applications that want to be the host for all of your files, but drop.io stands ahead of the pack.

At its simplest, drop.io is a place to store files on the Internet. You create “drops” filled with files, photos, audio, video and more that you can share with other people. There’s a 100MB limit on a given drop, but you can purchase more space if you want. Typically, though, 100MB is plenty- that’s an awful lot of PDFs and Word documents.

Every drop has a 7+ character name, and can be accessed, shared, and dealt with however you want. You can set the drop to be password protected, and even edit it later from your own account. Drops aren’t searchable, which means you’ll maintain the privacy of your files, and they’ll only be seen by the people who are supposed to see them.

In addition to all that, though, there are a ton more features that make drop.io unique. The feature list is gigantic, and there are a ton of features to make drops work for you. Here are eight ways to use drop.io to do more than just hold files.

1. Phone Drops and Drop Conferencing

For a long time, I used Jott to record all my random whims and thoughts – just call a number, record your message, and it gets saved for you. Then Jott got un-free. With drop.io, you can do the same thing Jott used to do. Every drop has a unique phone number- just call it, leave a message, and it’ll show up in your drop as an MP3 that you can listen to, download, or send to others. There’s also no time limit on your voicemails, like there was with Jott- your only limitation is the file size limit of the MP3.

Drop.io is also a really useful collaboration tool, both for file-sharing and discussing. Every drop, in addition to a voicemail number, has a unique conference number that you can give to people to call. Get everyone on the line, and you can discuss the files in the drop, manipulate them, and use drop.io as your project center. It’s free conferencing, and creates a central point for all of your dealings with a particular file or project.

2. Drop Tweeting

One drawback many people see in Twitter is that there’s no good way to share files with your followers on Twitter. Drop.io makes that process not only possible, but simple. Drop.io calls it Tweet.io, and it works like this: you enter your Twitter credentials into the drop.io page. Then, every time you add or update a file on the drop, a link to it will automatically be posted to your Twitter account. That means, for instance, that if you want to share a song with the Twitter world, just add it to your drop, and Twitter users will be able to listen to it with one click. To get here, select “Twitter Alerts” from the “Share” menu in your drop.

3. Back-up Space

This is possibly the simplest use for drop.io. You can add files to a drop by email (every drop has a unique email address), voicemail, fax, the web interface, a Firefox extension, or an embeddable widget. You’ve got 100MB per drop, with no limit on the number of drops you can have. To make them totally private, make sure to make them password-protected. Then, to keep them limited only to yourself, keep that password private. The number of drops you have could get big, though, so you may not want drop.io to be your only backup solution.

4. Drop Fax Machine

I don’t have a fax machine. I don’t need one very often, but every once in a while it’s a really useful thing to have. With drop.io fax, you can send and receive faxes right from the web. Just right-click on the file you want to send, and choose “fax”. Then, enter the number, and presto – they get a fax. To receive one is a bit more complicated, but totally possible – just follow drop.io’s instructions.

5. Drop Huge Attachments

Even if you use drop.io, odds are it might be too much for someone you know. For them, if they use email, you can still keep them involved. Emailing files out of drop.io is as simple as finding your file, clicking “send,” and then “email recipient.” They’ll get the file as an attachment, plus the link- which makes sure that they’ll get access to files of any size. It’s great for sending music, videos, or other large files you might not be able to send through email- but still dealing with email, which everyone’s comfortable with.

6. Drop to Facebook

Thanks to Facebook Connect, drop.io and Facebook are now totally connected. That means a number of really cool things: you can leave a voicemail to your Facebook feed for your friends to listen to, or fax things to your Facebook friends. With drop.io, Facebook has become a way to socially collaborate on files, and to share things you like with other people. No linking to download sites, making them download software, or other confusion- just fire up Facebook Connect, and your drops can be as involved with Facebook as you want. For more, check out drop.io’s Facebook page.

7. Drop Family Photo Albums

Drop.io’s support for photos is pretty fantastic. The viewer is good, the uploading quick, and the use of the drops easy. It’s as simple as uploading the images you want, and selecting “View” from the options. The view option (blog, media, etc.) you choose is up to you. Then, click on one of the images, and select the arrows to scroll through them. You can also share, embed, or comment on any given image.

8. Drop Insta-podcast

I’ve mentioned all of the things relevant here, but this is worth noting again. Here’s how simple it can be to make a podcast: one phone call. Call your drop’s number, leave a message, and boom- podcast. Or, upload a video, view it like a blog, and it’s a weekly podcast. How you create a podcast is up to you, but sharing it with the world couldn’t be easier- thanks to drop.io.

I’ve barely scratched the surface here of all the things drop.io can do. There are RSS feeds, SMS alerts, Dropcasts, and a huge number of other features that make drop.io a killer sharing application. I’ve learned a lot about it as I’ve been researching and writing this post, and I’m pretty sure I’ve become a life convert to drop.io.

Do you use drop.io, for backup or something else? Do you use a similar application? Tell us about them in the comments.