Box.net boasts two new features

In a flurry of recent activity, online collaboration and storage vendor, Box.net added two very nice features to its product set. Last week they added the ability to drag and drop files from your desktop onto a folder on the Box.net website giving you full operating system-style functionality. Today, they introduced another feature that allows you to embed Box.net files on any blog, wiki or website. 

The drag and drop functionality is achieved using HTML 5. Box.net CEO Aaron Levie (whom we interviewed One on One earlier this year) says there was really no practical way to do this prior HTML 5. "This has never been possible previously, as you would have had to use Java in the past (too slow and clunky)--and Flash wasn't able to do this due to security restrictions."

Levie says this new functionality mimics the desktop experience on the web and he thinks that's exciting. "It mimics the capabilities of local software in a way that a cloud-based service weren't able to do previously. We think this will make Cloud Content Management even more competitive and approachable by our customers."

Levie says using HTML5 should lead to other functionality that will contribute to a more seamless experience between desktop and cloud software on the web. "In the future we'll add more HTML5-dependent functionality like local-caching of data and offline capabilities, as well as some more real time interaction components."

The embedding feature is made possible because of Box's purchase of Increo Solutions in October, 2009.

For more information:
- see the Box.net blog post on drag and drop
- see the Box.net blog post on embedding files

Related Articles:
One on One with Aaron Levie of Box.net
Box.Net CEO: Thoughts from a newbie on AIIM 2010
TimeBridge Teams with Box.net