Posted on June 19, 2006 at 1:53 PM in @earthlink
Note: The below is an archived entry from Earthling, formerly EarthLink's official blog. The blog itself has been decommissioned and is no longer updated, and comments are trackbacks are no longer accepted.
Ok Windows users, forget those Mac jerks and their smug silvery computer/white headphones club. We've got some new stuff for you to try too.
EarthLink soft-launched a new software suite called WebLife last week. It's a soft-launch in that there's no fanfare around it yet, but it's now a fully functioning and supported product out there in the world. You can learn more about it and download it at http://weblife.earthlink.net.
The WebLife suite includes photo and file management and sharing, personal computer data backup, and online storage you can mount on your desktop. It fills an important need for our customers in our overall portfolio of software and service offerings. Read on for more on the project and how you can help us out.
I sat in on a presentation to analysts about WebLife last week, and learned a few things about the world of personal photography. Our research has shown us that although just about everyone is into digital photography by now, a shockingly low number of people ever back up the files that are the only originals of their images. One of the analysts mentioned a recent story that compared the number of house fires to the number of hard drive crashes -- making the point that computers crash all the time, but most people worry a lot more about keeping their photo prints safe than they do their files. One of the goals of WebLife is to make it easy to know your photos (and other digital files) are safe, even when bad things happen to your personal computer.
It's free for current EarthLink customers to try with 1 gigabyte of storage, and non-EarthLink users can get it for $30/year or $3/month. You can also add to the storage limit if you find that you need more room for all your stuff.
As we did with the EarthLink Shopping Widget last week, we'd like to ask for your help. We're already working on the first update release, which we'll distribute in several weeks. Please download and play around with the basic version of WebLife, and help us make sure we cover all the right areas with the first update. We'd also like to hear from you to help us plan our long-term roadmap.
We've created a survey to catch some of those ideas, and you can also discuss it in the comments below.
If you're an existing EarthLink customer, you can get WebLife Basic by signing in with your EarthLink username and password. Once you've downloaded it, installed it, and messed around with it, come back and fill out the survey and/or drop a comment below.
Oh, and Mac users? Sorry about the whole silvery computer club thing. I'm a member too.
Comments
Mac jerks? I resemble that remark! WebLife is the closest thing that Windows users can get to what Mac users have already been enjoying. Not bad for release 1.0. Congratulations to the WebLife team for releasing this product!
Posted by Dave Kelly | June 20, 2006 10:42 AM
Nice application. Only a Windows download but the Web app works well with a Mac.
It took just over three minutes to upload the Apple 1984 ad.
If I just had a way to publish it here!
Posted by Lance Weatherby | June 20, 2006 8:22 PM
Looks Great, but would not accept any of my earthlink email addresses or passwords. Could this be because my earthlink account is through my local phone company?
Posted by Darkles | June 22, 2006 11:55 AM
Darkles, I'm not sure why that's happening. That's something our tech support can help you with.
Posted by Dave Coustan | June 22, 2006 4:24 PM
I have a friend who has Weblife and I think its pretty cool and fast!
Posted by JB | June 22, 2006 10:54 PM
I expected to be able to mount the WebLife directory via my Windows Network Places like I can with .mac (using WebDAV). Are you guys not exposing this functionality?
Posted by Fred | July 3, 2006 7:24 PM
Fred, At this time we are not exposing the WebDAV file store. In order to access the folders though, you can use the WebLife Disk application. It uses Windows explorer and allows you to access the storage space.
Posted by Jason Warshaw | July 5, 2006 9:42 AM
WebLife Back-Up keeps telling me its checking for files for back-up and it says it for like 2 hours, and then I just give up.
Posted by Tyler | July 7, 2006 4:45 PM
Jason, I think it's cool that EL is doing this, and I can understand how it makes sense in terms of adding value so folks are less likely to go off to other ISPs. Great stuff. I do echo Fred's underlying request that you open up the WebDAV file store. I'm not about to install a third-party tool to do what an IEFT standard protocol is designed to handle, and for which there is broad cross-platform support. I'll just keep using my iBackup account.
Posted by Mike | July 7, 2006 8:31 PM
You can mount WebLife disk using http://dav.earthlink.net/. It should work with any stabdrd DAV client
Posted by bib | July 12, 2006 1:32 PM
Does not let me sign up using my email addy and password.What's up with that?
Posted by Judi | August 16, 2006 1:47 PM
Hi Judi,
Are you currently an EarthLink access customer (i.e. do you get your internet access through EarthLink cable, DSL, dial-up, or muni Wi-Fi)? If so, I'd contact support ( http://support.earthlink.net/contact/ will get you there through live chat or phone).
If you're not a current access customer, you can use this page: http://www.earthlink.net/software/nmpremium/weblife/ to order WebLife.
Posted by Dave C. | August 21, 2006 12:30 PM
Can not install software because smart installer insists I dial a connection and since I use DSL...
Online Backup, and Disk functions work ok but no menu when I try to use the online photo. The weblife help refers to buttons that just don't appear on my screen. For example it says to just click the 'Add' button to upload photos. No add button there.
And I am using Windows XP.
Posted by Sam Barlow | September 9, 2006 4:05 PM