Send Large Attachments for Free with Outlook and Drop.io

With all the attention I’ve given Drop.IO in the past, it’s probably no surprise when I tell you I just love this service!  Well, today I’m going to share one more reason why all you groovyReaders out there should also love this free online service, drop.io!

Available for download now, Drop.io has built an Outlook Plugin (beta) which allows you to easily send attachments up to 100 Megs in size.  The Plugin and the service is absolutely 100% free, no string attached.  Let’s take a quick look.

Once you grab the download, the install is very straight forward.  I’ve tested it out on Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 and the install and functionality worked exactly the same and once installed, the new drop.io buttons will appear on the Outlook Ribbon for new emails.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the drop.io plugin allows you to drop a free conf. bridge into your email/invite or Attach large files.  Once you attach a large file a random drop is created and link + a preview is added to your email once you send it.

Clicking on individual files will take you to a preview of the attachment (photo’s look nice) or Clicking on the “View All Files” will take you to the auto-generated Drop Root where all the attachments will be listed along with additional options.

It really couldn’t be any simpler than that to send large attachments using Outlook.  I might even go so far as to call this a YouSendIt killer for 90% of you out there…  And if your a corporate user/admin and want to take this to the next level with more advanced features, centralized management etc.. the following are a few of the options you will gain with a drop.io Manager Account

• Centralized management
• Customer Permissions for attachments (Download, comments etc)
• Change attachment expiration
• Added Security (SSL, guest passwords)
• Customized branding (drop design, colors, background, logos etc)

Now if your a DEV, you should be he interested to know that this plugin for outlook was built after just a few hours with the free API during the last drop.io hackathon.  For more info on this, take a look at drop.io for Developers.

Want even MORE info?  Here’s a groovy video from the drop.io site with a nice video demo of the new Outlook Plugin.

Questions?  Comments about another groovy Outlook plugin?  Join the conversation and drop a comment below!