Growing your followers means you will move beyond the people that you personally know. So how do you send someone a file online without their email address? Surprisingly, there are at least nine different sites that can answer that question for you. From presentations to mp3s to documents to zip files and anything else, they can now be sent via Twitter. This really opens up the use of Twitter from a simple communication tool to a new way to share large amounts of information.
A decent site should be able to explain itself in that time.
Tweetcube
Tweetcube allows you to upload zip, rar, pdf, jpg, png, gif, mp3 and txt files. According to Tweetcube, you can upload as many 10 mb files as you want, and after 30 days they get deleted. Or you could if it worked. Ten megabytes seems to be the lower end of the uploading spectrum anyway.
Tweetmojo
Tweetmojo allows you to share videos, photos, files and tweets of up to 1400 characters long. There is no mention of upper size limit on file sharing and a tweet to their Twitter account didn’t get a reply. There is also a timeline so you can see what other people have uploaded from the site. Tweetmojo does allow you to record your own video and post it from the site by using the Viddler video recorder. That is, if the sign in feature worked.
Twitt
Twi.tt gives you the ability to upload pictures, videos, documents, audio and create a poll. The screen is divided into tabs so you can select from which area you want to upload. Under each tab is a selection of options, such as upload from computer, get from website, capture from webcam or post by email. Most of the these options aren’t available yet but there is a message that it should “be added in just a few days.” You can choose between posting your file to Twitter or just putting it in the Twi.tt public timeline. There is no mention of file size or how your files are hosted on their system or for how long.
TwitFS
TwitFS offers a free non-account version, which is pretty good. You can upload up to 100 MB at once, you can share videos, audio, pictures and documents, and you can publish to Twitter, blogs, Facebook, MySpace, message boards and send via email. You can also store your file for 30 days, send a direct message to an individual or message everyone in your tweetstream. Once uploaded, your file gets its own page and you can share the url or embed it in another program. If you register with TwitFS, you can upload a file up to 250 MB, a file manager, a direct link to the file, parallel downloads and unlimited file storage. For a small fee starting at $0.99, you get up to 2.5 GB maximum file size.
Filetwt
Filetwt is another simple site. You enter your Twitter username and password, enter a 114 character message and upload a file up to 20 MB. The file then goes out on your public Twitter stream. The site creates a TinyURL that links back to a page where you can download the file. It works basically the same as Filesocial, but not as well. It also offers the ability to sign up for an account, which allows you to send private tweets, better storage and allows for creating a friend list to send files to. The friend list isn’t a complete list of your Twitter followers.
FileSocial
FileSocial is the prettiest site of the file sharing tools. You can upload any file up to 50 MB and post it to your public Twitter timeline. The file is stored on their servers for an unknown amount of time. FileSocial sends out a message to your Twitter stream with a TinyURL. People can view your file, download it or leave a message on it. It also opens the file without having to download it. There is also a downloadable client that allows you to drag and drop files you want to share.
TwitDoc
TwitDoc uses the Twitter OAuth to log you into their account. You can upload up videos up to 25MB, documents up to 15MB and photos up to 10MB. I’m not sure why they are using different file sizes for each type of file. Once you’ve uploaded your file and sent your tweet, you get a TinyURL, which links to a page where you file is. It’s a simple site that gives you the ability to share files quickly and easily. There is also a downloadable client that allows you to use the site’s features from your desktop.
Acamin
Acamin is designed with a nod to the academic community. That doesn’t mean it’s limited to that field. You can post files to your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account.According to the icons on the page, you can attach a file to an email, publish it online, get the code to embed your file and convert it to a pdf.
Conclusion
TwitFS did the best by ultimately having the best features. It’s simple to use, accepts the largest files and allows you to share the file across multiple networks. Best of all, it works without any problems. FileSocial is also recommended for it’s ability to view the files without having to download them.
