The BizCATS REVIEWS: YouSendIt – Send BIG Files the Big Easy Way!

Sharing big files is a hassle, especially when it’s a one-time thing. For example, a customer requests a copy of that powerpoint presentation you recently showed it and, since it’s kind of a monster, it’s too big to send via email. What do you do? Burn it to a CD and hand deliver it? It’s not just presentations of course, it can also be pictures and hi-res graphics, large file folders, data files, almost anything. For me, at least, I don’t need to do this all the time but when I do I’d like it to be fast and easy – and not cost me anything.

YOUSENDIT (www.yousendit.com) is a great solution and comes in a free version for occasional users like me as well as a low-cost version for frequent business users. It’s fast, reliable, easy, and secure – everything you want in one package.

How does it work? After registering on YouSendIt.com you can send a large file much the same way you create an email – fill out the name and email you want to send it, add a message, attach a file, press send. Your file is uploaded to YouSendIt and a message is sent to your recipient with a download link for the file. You can send to multiple people as well.

The free version has, naturally, some limits. Max file size is 100MB (not too shabby actually!), and you can only send a single file at a time. What this means is that to send multiple files all at once you need to combine them into a zip file by (in Windows)  right-clicking on the files and selecting “send to … compressed file (zip)”, and then uploading the resulting zip file. The same is true for a file folder – zip it and send it. The paid version allows for files up to 2GB and enables sending multiple files without compressing – well worth it if you use it a lot. There’s also some nice little paid features like “read receipt” and “express delivery” that can be useful and bought a la carte.

I’ve been a regular user for about a year now and the service has proven trouble free and fast. More importantly, my clients have been happy with it – simple to access and download and no issues. Pretty impressive. Recently they announced a nice suite of apps – a desktop express app, an Outlook connector, and Blackberry/iPhone apps.

The Business Bottomline: There are lot of other applications and products to share content with others and collaborate (like Dropbox (www.dropbox.com), but most of them work best when you are part of a team or within a company and there are people you need to share with regularly. YouSendIt isn’t particularly fancy, it’s just one of those products that works really, really well. That’s why it’s a BizCATS “Best Pick”!

Today’s pix:  Propellers! Over New England … it’s what happens when you decide to take a picture out the window right thru the spinning propellers of a commuter plane. Who knew?

– Tim

Tags: best cloud apps, YouSendIt