If you're looking for a way to better manage and share the huge number of digital files on your hard drive, consider Fabrik's Myfabrik. This media-focused online storage service lets you store, view, and share content via an attractive, minimalist interface that works very well, and it hides a few interesting additional features.
Myfabrik's free Basic account lets you store up 1GB of files. A Premium account lets you buy 2GB to 100GB of storage for a monthly fee of $0.49 per GB-a rate that gets less cost-effective as you approach the upper end; I'd prefer a cost scale that slides a bit more. I uploaded pictures, music, movies, and documents into directories labeled as such. The Ajax- and Java-enabled browser interface conveniently supports dragging and dropping for uploading, and that goes even for nested folders. MyFabrik supports Internet Explorer 6 or later and Firefox 1.5 or later.
You can play media from within Myfabrik, which supports such common formats as WMV, MPEG (-1, -2, and -4), FLV, and MP3. (Fabrik says that it plans to add pro photo features, such as Raw file support, at a later date.) Double-clicking on a media file brings up the appropriate player. Myfabrik will store but not play DRM-protected content; you'll have to transfer the fileto your local hard drive and use an appropriate player to play it.
You can share media simply in a few ways. Select files from among your content within the Web browser interface, press the Make Public button, and the service publishes the content to your public Myfabrik Web page. Pressing the Embed button creates the HTML code needed to publish stored images and music to eBay, MySpace, Blogger, or Xanga. (Video support is currently available only on the free Myfabrik Lite service, where you can upload and embed media one time only without an account.) You can also send content by e-mail to individuals or groups. Fabrik expects to have video support for the paid version soon.
Creating groups via the service's e-mail feature takes some work. I had to type e-mail addresses into the browser form, though I wanted to drag them into the interface. The company should support address import from mail programs this spring. Once set up, you can select groups from a drop-down menu to send an e-mail link, which you can schedule to remain active for only a certain number of days if you choose.
One gripe: Myfabrik's small, sometimes vaguely named icons caused me to miss some features initially. For example, a tiny humanoid icon lets you specify up to ten guests who can share your account. And to reveal the useful Experiences toobar, I had to mouse over the window's bottom ; the toolbar lets you combine media into collections, such as photos and music for a birthday party. Though it was occasionally slow and even froze a few times, Myfabrik proved fun and easy to use. I think it's worth a look.
Narasu Rebbapragada