Online backup, sync and sharing has been all the rage for ages and for awhile now a very quiet startup named Dropbox has been working on making it very simple, useful and sexy.

Dropbox is pretty straight forward. You install an app on your pc and a certain root folder is designated as your dropbox! Whatever you place in this folder, or in subfolders you create, it is automatically uploaded to your dropbox. Additionally, using the web UI you can upload files that will end up being synced to your pc. Lovely.

So why do I like Dropbox?

• It’s simple. Even the most novice of the novice could get this. It functions like a regular folder on your computer, but just has some nice magic working behind it. The web interface is also very clean and simple to use (Although currently being in beta, it still has a bit to go)
• Multiple computers can hook up to a single account. This is very useful, as I can now sync certain media files between my work and home PC. I could do this already yes, but the point is dropbox takes away a ton of hassle and just makes it seamless.
• Great integration between the web and pc client. The activity stream is almost instant, and file upload notifications are very fast. It’s a small thing, but it feels good to see a web interface that relies on an outside source working so nicely.
• 2GB of free storage for all users. If you read their blog, you’ll realize this will last even when they are launched. They will of course, introduce payment plans for more space and premium features once they are closer to launch (See their blog for some details.)

Obligatory file uploaded using Dropbox.

To sum it all up, Dropbox has been around for awhile and they’ve been polishing up their product and it’s almost to the point where it’s ready for the primetime. I’ve been using it for a few days and am enjoying how easy it is.

Dropbox, as far as i know will be launching this week at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Fransisco.