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Image hosting that doesn't suck - just drag and drop

91 points| chrisbroadfoot | 15 years ago |min.us

79 comments

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[+] thingie|15 years ago|reply
Is there any other way to drop a picture? Even though drag & drop seems to be the easiest and most comfortable way, for me, it is not :-) I'd have to run some kind of file manager, find the directory, image, carefully position both file manager window and the browser, do the job and then put everything back. Surprisingly hard, but that's a real setup that I have (and many people I know too).
[+] cing|15 years ago|reply
Are you saying that you'd like to do image hosting from command line? I think you might be opposite to the target audience of this site.
[+] carlhu|15 years ago|reply
Carl here (Minus co-founder). Thank you for the suggestion! Sometimes you want to drag, sometimes you want to pick files from a dialog. Look for this feature in 1.5 weeks or so. We'll also add the API (discussed in this thread) as well. People should be able to use whatever method is convenient for them. Thank you for your feedback!
[+] archon810|15 years ago|reply
You don't have to carefully position anything. Just drag the files, hover them over the browser tab in the taskbar, wait for 2 seconds, and it will pop the browser into view. Then drop.

Also, I have Total Commander open at all times. Can't live without it (there are similar tools for Linux, Mac, etc).

[+] dioltas|15 years ago|reply
There's lots of scripts that let you do this with imgur.

I'm sure it would be possible to do the same with this, but I think the site isn't really aimed at 'nix gurus! :D

[+] senki|15 years ago|reply
Just use an unsupported browser (Opera)!
[+] evgeny0|15 years ago|reply
Love it! Clean, so simple it requires almost no instructions and it JUST WORKS. I also love the fact that I don't have to wait for the current image (or batch) to finish uploading and can immediately drag more files in.

(Actually, that last feature made me feel stupid for a moment: I wondered how images seemed to be uploaded so "instantly" and only after testing it on a large image file did I realise that you're just displaying the local image!)

[+] carlhu|15 years ago|reply
This is Carl (Minus cofounder). Exactly, Evgeny: When you drop an image into Minus, we immediately show the local image to offer the user immediate usability. The image is uploaded in the background. We'll add indicators to make this more obvious. Thanks for the feedback!
[+] pilif|15 years ago|reply
The cynical side of me makes me think that this will go down the road of all other image hosting services that didn't suck: To cover the immense bandwidth costs, sooner or later, it will have to suck like everybody else.

At that point, a new service that "doesn't suck" will pop up.

[+] Retric|15 years ago|reply
There are several hosting services that offer 3+TB per month plans for 130$ / month. So if you stick with 1MB images you only need to recover ~1 cent per 200 downloads to break even. IMO, that seems doable.
[+] jrnkntl|15 years ago|reply
Works as advertised! Minimal and clean.

I just tried to copy the url of my 3.1mb image into my browser but it hanged; turns out you use a base64 encoded string of the whole image to display it like:

data:image/png;base64,... etc

Was this technically necessary? I guess so, but since you show the direct link underneath it, why not replace it with that one?

[+] mindotus|15 years ago|reply
Thanks for the feedback/comment :) We display the image that way so you are able to Preview it while the image uploads to our server in the backend. Once it finishes however you refresh and will see the images loaded from our server.

We also convert larger images into shrunken sizes for the gallery so it can be viewed without too much lag, but the full size image will still be available via the "Link to Image" or "Download all as Zip" function :)

John

[+] BTBurke|15 years ago|reply
Works great, but when I tested it out as an anonymous user, then decided to sign up, it didn't import the gallery I just made.
[+] carlhu|15 years ago|reply
Our thinking was that the galleries people create anonymously are different than the galleries people want to associate their user with, so we make sure to make those two histories completely separate. Any ideas on how we can make this more clear from a UX design perspective?
[+] simzen85|15 years ago|reply
Photos are best viewed on dark background (e.g Flickriver), can you provide some templates and a quick way to switch between them ?

Also, could we have slideshow for playback where nothing will be displayed except the photos themselves ?

[+] mindotus|15 years ago|reply
Thanks, both features we have on our to-do list already, be sure to vote them up in http://feedback.min.us , we're doing our best to prioritize them.
[+] yatsyk|15 years ago|reply
Correct me if I'm wrong but it's impossible to cover S3 costs with ads displayed near pictures. According to FAQ you are going to leave picture unlimited time (and paying for space in S3) even if no one is visiting page with picture.
[+] mindotus|15 years ago|reply
Thanks for bringing that up. We are exploring many monetization strategies and business models but we will definitely keep that in mind.

We may implement few different models but in the end our mission is to keep Minus free, simple and minimal in making sharing easy and fast :)

[+] synnik|15 years ago|reply
There are other services with drag/drop to upload your photos. The one I use even works dragging directly from Picasa, so I don't even have to touch my own file system.

From what I can tell, min.us has no other features, so I'm very confused as to why this "doesn't suck". It seems to be a non-unique UI interface to plain old photo sharing.

[+] chrisbroadfoot|15 years ago|reply
If you're confused as to why this "doesn't suck", then please tell me why it sucks!

Please note that I didn't make the claim that it's amazing or ground-breaking. :)

[+] emzo|15 years ago|reply
This is really nice and clean. Personally, I think it's a bad name though. Minus? I appreciate it does "emphasize simplicity and minimalism", but it's got nothing at all to do with images. Also, it would be even better if you could include some form of federated login so I don't have to sign up.
[+] carlhu|15 years ago|reply
This is Carl, cofounder of Minus. Thank you for the suggestions. We are looking into adding OpenID and Google Login soon. In the mean time, we designed Minus in the hope that you can use Minus effectively without having to sign up at all!
[+] nickbarnwell|15 years ago|reply
This is spurred more by your username than anything else, but how is it pronounced? Minus, or "Min dot us"?
[+] mindotus|15 years ago|reply
Pronounced Minus. Sorry, we've been having to use "mindotus" as username on twitter,facebook etc.. as minus is taken. Still trying to get twitter to release Minus w/o any luck :\
[+] samratjp|15 years ago|reply
And I thought Dropbox photos folder was the lazy man's photo hosting thus far... +1 for the minus team!
[+] redthrowaway|15 years ago|reply
I'd really like to be able to drag and drop images from other tabs, as saving to disk is a pain in the ass. I suspect, however, that that's a Chrome issue, not a minus issue. Still, great site!
[+] antimatter15|15 years ago|reply
It's actually possible to drag and drop images from other tabs, but there's some weird almost unavoidable issues. Google Docs's presentation app allows you to drag and drop images.
[+] quizbiz|15 years ago|reply
As a photographer, I love that you guys are allowing for the high res uploads. I'm also a fan of the minimalist feel. The animations are very cool but they need to be smoother. :)
[+] mindotus|15 years ago|reply
Thanks :) We're definitely working on optimizing things for the user end and keeping it minimal/simple is our top priority. If anyone can contribute in terms of optimizing the frontend loading/speed for "larger images" feel free to drop me at [email protected]
[+] jwtanner|15 years ago|reply
Excellent design. Big question: how will they make money?
[+] mindotus|15 years ago|reply
We have few business models in mind and monetization strategies. We will explore them as time goes on very carefully, but right now our goal is to make Minus better and increase compatibility for mobile platforms and more such as allowing documents and other filetypes.

John

[+] random42|15 years ago|reply
Neat service! Would like to have a copy to clipboard button (A low hanging fruit, I suppose), for the image url.
[+] mindotus|15 years ago|reply
That is coming this week :D

John

[+] scrrr|15 years ago|reply
Headline could be: The Imgur-Killer
[+] mindotus|15 years ago|reply
:) Look out for document support soon on Minus including PDF, TXT, DOC, PPT and more!