File sharing hosts: places to store files

Sometimes, you may want to make a file available for download, or even just for reading, from your website or blog. This article lists some options for this, and some of the issues involved.

Blogger lets you include the contents of video and picture files (.bmp, .jpg, .png files) in your posts. But if you want to display any other type of file, or make a file available for your readers to download, then

You need to store the file somewhere else, and
The place that you store it in needs to make it available, on request, to people who ask for it (usually by clicking on a link in their web-browser), and
You need to put an appropriate link to it into your blog.

A place that lets you upload a file, and then makes the file available is called a file-host.

Generally, when you upload a file to a file-host you need to set the security level, so that the host knows who is allowed to see (read) and change (edit) it.

Google's file-hosting options

Since you are already using Blogger, which is one of Google's services, then it makes sense that the first file-hosting option you consider are the ones offered by Google.

Google Drive

Drive, originally called Docs, is Google's main file hosting tool. You can now upload files of any type. This includes text, xml, sql, and compressed (zip) files.

For some types (Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc) you have the option of leaving the file in it's "native" format, or converting it to Drive format.

After you have uploaded a file to Drive, you can set the Sharing options for it. If sharing is set to either public or "anyone with the link", then you are given a link that you can use to share the file.

The link looks like:
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5681944372768269659&postID=2851854464091107939

and of course you can use it as the link for some anchor-text, like this in the same way that you create any other link. (The words "like this" are linked to the same place as the long link that is shown above.)

When someone clicks on the link, they are taken to a Google Drive file viewer screen showing either:

A view of the document, with options to save, print or download it (if the file type is one that Docs supports), OR
A link to download the document (if it's not a file-type that Docs recognises)

If a document is in Google Docs, Sheets or Slides format, you can edit it and the Share button (top right corner) has an option for Publishing it to the web. Doing this creates a separate webpage, with its own URL, that anyone with the link can use to see the document.

Published documents give the option of a link, which looks like:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1p_QFNXNfXE56XwWuSgg3iU8rDt_a29lvTwqxN_wsSUU

or an embed code, like:

(The document being displayed here is simply a word-processing file containing some text.)

Google Sites

Sites is another Google-based alternative for file-hosting.

When you log in to it, you are prompted to either create a new (web)site, or to select an existing one.   If you do this, and create a new "filing cabinet" type of page, you have a place where you can upload files - of any type.

When you look at this filing-cabinet page, you see some action buttons (add a file, move it to a folder, delete it, subscribe to changes), and a list of files that have already been uploaded.   Each file that is listed shows the file name, and links to View (only for files of some types), and Download it.

A view link looks like:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxiaGF0ZmlsZXN0b3JlfGd4OjEzMjMxNDYyMDBjYWNiMzg

and a Download link looks like:
https://sites.google.com/site/bhatfilestore/template-management/Feedflare-sampleeBook.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

You can copy the value beind these links from the Sites page in whatever way your browser supports (in IE8, it's right-click > Copy Shortcut)

A Sites file cabinet is a better file-storage option than Google Docs for some cases because:

You can easily get a download link which doesn't force readers see the file in a Google Viewer and require them to find and click a second link to put a copy of the file I'm offering onto their computer, and
The download link includes the name that the file has on your computer (or wherever else it was made): this makes it a lot easier to double-check that you've attached the correct link to the right anchor-text.
If load a new file with the same name to Sites, then it simply replaces the existing file with the new one, notes that there is a new version - and the links don't change.

If you want to display the content of a file from Sites inside your blog, it may be possible to do so using a Google Web Element. (This definitely works for PowerPoint files - still to check about others.)

Google Code, previously called Google Project Hosting

This is a tool for hosting code for open-source development projects. I haven't tried it yet (or checked the terms and conditions of use), but it may be a handy place for storing text files that can be read without having to go through Docs/Sites display screens.

Google Maps

Really, a map is just a (very specialised) type of file. I've previously described how to put a Google custom map into your blog.

Picasa-web-albums - and now Google Album Archive / Photos

Picasa-web-albums (PWA) was a specialist file-hosting tool for pictures, and has many features that are not available in Docs, Sites, etc. Since 2006, pictures that are put into Blogger posts were actually stored in an album in PWA.

Picasa was finally retired during 2016. It was replaced by Google Photos, and also by Google Album Archive, which provides a way to access photo uploaded via Blogger and other tools which don't appear on Google Photos.

I tend to upload pictures here first and then just link to their URL from Blogger, because this lets me control the resolution of the uploaded files.

Google Video

Video is where movies that are uploaded to your blog using the Video icon in the post-editor toolbar are stored.

A major disadvantage is that it does not let you find or manage (delete, edit) videos that you have uploaded. For this reason alone, I'd use YouTube, or Vimeo, or almost anything else if I wanted to put videos into a blog. [NB I haven't tried either .. yet.]

Non-Google file-hosting options

Your ISP

Some internet service providers (ISPs) include file-hosting as part of their services. You need to investigate how you can access and display files that they host for you - and whether you may be charged for traffic is a lot of people start downloading your files.

Dropbox

Now one of the most commonly known file-host solutions, Dropbox is a very simple tool which was created to work nicely with both mobile and desktop solutions. Depending on the type of account you have, it may have limitations in how long files will be hosted for.

OneDrive

Microsoft's answer to Dropbox.

Scribd

This is one of a number of file-hosting services on the internet, and has been recommended by many Blogger users.

For PDF files, it provides codes that you can use to embed the pdf content in a Post, rather than forcing your readers to download it.

It's free, but has a restriction on how much an individual can download each day, so isn't good if you want only a few people to be getting large documents from your site).

DocStor

Another file-hosting site that has received good reports from many bloggers in the past - although it doesn't look like it's free any more.

Other Photo hosting sites

Each site has slightly different features: you may find that flickr, Photobucket, Imagehosting, or FanBox suit your needs better than Picasa-web-albums, if you're want a "full featured" photo sharing system.

Or if you need very quickly accessible features, try something like: