Ever wanted a simpler way to share files with Dropbox, Skydrive, or Google Drive? After all, with each of them, you can get tons of storage for free or cheap, and odds are you’re already using one of them to keep your files in sync anyhow. Why not use them instead of signing up for something like Droplr or CloudApp?
There’s a lot of reasons, really. For one, Droplr and CloudApp let you drag-and-drop files from your desktop or any Finder folder to directly share from your menubar, whereas with Dropbox or other services you’d have to add files to your folder first, then get a link, which is more time and steps. Then, there’s no simple way to take a screenshot and upload the file in one step.
That’s where Share Bucket comes in, with its drag-and-drop sharing from the cloud storage service of your choice. It’s not perfect, but it does make sharing files a lot quicker without CloudApp or Droplr.
Simple Screenshot Sharing, Your Way
Droplr-style file sharing, with Dropbox
Share Bucket works almost exactly like Droplr or CloudApp for simple file sharing, but with the cloud storage service of your choice. You pick from Dropbox, Google Drive, and Skydrive, then authenticate Share Bucket with the service of your choice. You don’t even have to have the service’s app installed on your Mac to use it, since Share Bucket is uploading files via the service’s API.
Then, all that’s left is to use it for sharing. Just drag-and-drop any file from anywhere (and yes, large files should work just fine, though I only tested it with files ~20Mb and smaller) to the Share Bucket icon in your menubar, and seconds later you’ll get a notification that a link for the file is in your clipboard. You can now share the link with a simple CMD+V.
There’s more, too.
Click the icon, and you’ll find something familar to anyone who’s used CloudApp: a list of your files and an option to auto-upload screenshots. Click any of the recently uploaded files to open it in your browser (though unfortunately there’s no way to directly copy the link to that file without opening it, and the browser-opened link won’t be shortened as your freshly-uploaded links are). Then, you’ll find some extras, including options to caption and annotate a picture or open the image editor directly.
Throw In Some Tweaks, Too
Basic image annotation for the smallest stuff.
Share Bucket’s built-in photo editor is very similar to Evernote’s Skitch, but tied to the cloud service of your choice. You can quickly add basic annotations to your images and save them to your computer or upload them directly. The edit options aren’t very advanced, though: you can’t tweak any of the edits after they’re added, and can’t even change the text font. There’s also no crop or resize options, but there is a handy blur tool to knock out sensitive info. Overall, you’ll likely not want to use Share Bucket to edit your screenshots and photos, but it’s a handy option to have included that could get better in future updates.
Rounding out the feature set, you’ll find a few extra settings you can tweak in the settings. You can choose the cloud storage service of your choice, of course, but then can also choose to either share the default link produced by your cloud storage service or a shortened Sharebucket.com address. The default addresses from, say, Dropbox are very long, clocking in at 97 characters, but then, Share Bucket’s shortened links aren’t exactly short, clocking in at 46 characters.
Beyond that, you’ll find an option to auto-upload screenshots, a setting to auto-delete shared files after a certain time, and an option to downscale images shot on retina displays. You’ll also find options to set your keyboard shortcuts for file upload and screenshot capture, and settings to turn off the sounds. It’s everything you’d expect in a simple app for quick online file sharing.
It’s not Perfect, Though
…well, after a quick interruption. Just once.
Unfortunately, Share Bucket isn’t perfect. There’s a number of small frustrations with the app, some of which start at first launch when you’ll be asked to subscribe to a newsletter and follow the developers. That’s not way too frustrating, though, since it only opens when you first launch the app. After that, though, if you’ve ever edited an image with Share Bucket, the edit window will open with the last image you edited when you launch the app. You can close the edit window, but it’s rather frustrating to have it open every time you launch the app, and adds a little frustration to what should be a run-and-forget-about-it menubar app.
If you can get past that, though, Share Bucket is a great way to share images and other files quickly using your Dropbox, Skydrive, or Google Drive storage. You likely won’t want to use it to edit images since even Preview is nicer for image markup, but for CloudApp or Droplr style sharing from the cloud storage service of your choice for the low price of free, Share Bucket can’t be beat.
     |