I first met Wuala and one of the founding partners Dominik Grolimund ( shown here talking to Scoble) at a Techcrunch Bluewin startup event in Zurich that I was blogging live at (yes I can do that, have Swisscom roaming and it works well.)
I wrote on wuala at the time and other startups.
I have since written about and
interviewed many Swisstech successes
My first hurdle was understanding the name in the striking red and white Wuala logo. It's the phonetic spelling of Voilà ( French meaning, here it is.) And is pronounced exactly as you see it.
So there you are. I spoke to Dominik presenting his startup there at the
Bluewin Swisscom,Techcrunch event and asked him about the competitior box.net and about his startup, a social storage solution too, which he told me was going to be bigger and better than box.com.
Well the Wuala launch party with the friendly team in Zurich of Oona, Sushi Domink and the rest of the team of seven, I missed, as I had broken my leg, but since then the rise of Wuala has seen no end.
30,478,784 files securely stored in Wuala.
A string of start up awards:
The lift08 conf venture award watch wuala presentation video
Recently announced by ReadWriteWeb as one of the
Top 10 International Products of 2008
Finalist in #leweb startups 07 And mentioned as a startup success at 2008
#leweb by TechcrunchUK's Mike Butcher.
#leweb photo Andre Ribeirinho
So what exactly is Wuala?
Wuala is a mesh/cloud/P2P storage system which harnesses the idle resources of participating users and thus provides a sound solution as there are no file size limits and no bandwidth limits. This is an improvement on other systems that Dominik spoke to me about. This is essentially your own on-line hardisk where you can store photos, files, contacts or whatever, safely and ready to access.
Developed at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich). Dominik Grolimund and Luzius Meisser started research and development on Wuala at ETH Zurich in 2004. In alpha mode it was tested for three years with many communities.
In 2007, they founded their company, Caleido Inc.
The BETA Wuala launched in August 2008.
Wuala, the social online storage
Features content from wuala site:
Voilà, here comes Wuala! Securely store and back up files online, access them from anywhere, and share your photos, videos, and music with friends and family.
Join Wuala today and experience a new dimension of storing and sharing files - free, simple, and secure.
Features
Security
Privacy
Like you, we care about privacy. That's why privacy is a key aspect of Wuala. All files get encrypted on your computer and you control who has access to which folders. Since your password never leaves your computer, no one else - including us - can see your private files.
Unlimited and fast
Lots of storage
You start with 1 GB of storage for free, but you can get much more! You can either trade unused local disk space for more online storage (e.g., trade 50 GBs on your computer to get up to 50 GBs of online storage), or buy additional storage at a really good price. With Wuala, you can easily get as much room as you need for all your photos, documents, and videos.
Unlimited traffic
Wuala does not limit your traffic in any way. You can upload and download as much as you want and downloads are very fast. Amazing? Sure - our novel technology makes it possible.
Any file, any size
You can upload any file of any size. Be it a 100 KB Word file, a 2 MB JPG photo, or a 3 GB video.
Fast downloads
Downloads in Wuala are fast. Why? Thanks to our storage grid technology you can download from multiple sources in parallel, providing you with maximum download speed.
Convenience
Drag and drop
Simply drag and drop the files or folders you want to upload into Wuala. Done. No "choose file" dialogs, no single selections.
Desktop and web
Convenience is important to us. Wuala is not a clumsy website where you need to upload files one by one, but it's a desktop client where you can drag-and-drop and upload files in the background. Nevertheless, Wuala can be started from the web, making it easy to run anywhere.
Integrated into Windows, Mac, and Linux
Wuala is fully integrated into your system, be it Windows, Mac, or Linux. You can open a file with a double click from Wuala or browse the Wuala disk from the "Open" dialog of any application. You can also edit files directly in Wuala. No copying around, no synchronization.
Upload in the background
That's another thing a web-based solution just can't do: Dump your files into Wuala and let it take care of the rest. You need to quit Wuala or shut down your computer while uploading files? No problem! Wuala will continue right where it stopped when you launch it the next time.
Responsiveness
Being an application, Wuala is not bound by the limits of web-based solutions which makes Wuala much more responsive and allows for improved efficiency. The time you need to create a new folder and insert some files is only limited by how fast you can handle the mouse.
Experience
Streaming
Media files such as videos or music can be streamed directly. No waiting until it is downloaded. Just lean back and enjoy.
Slideshow
Wuala has no constraints regarding file size or quality. One of the obvious advantages is that your friends can upload photos in full quality for you to enjoy as a full screen slideshow. Being fully integrated into the operating system, Wuala can make use of the gorgeous slideshow feature of the system itself.
Notifications
Stay on top of what your friends are uploading - you get a notification whenever they share new files with you. That's like mini-feeds in Facebook, just for files.
Links and more
Share folders
Sharing files with friends could not be simpler: Select a folder in Wuala and choose who of your friends can access it. Or share a folder by password and send a link plus password by email or in an instant message.
Link to your files
After making a file public, everyone can access that file. You can then copy the link of the file and post it anywhere to point people to your latest pictures, scientific paper or freeware application. Or link to your files from MySpace, Facebook, etc.
So I think the coolest things about this are its speed, its ease of use, drag drop-file sharing, and felixibilty across software, and its user-friendliness for social media. Plus the groups, API group, and even a Christmas wallpaper group all of which you can find on the site.
Group: Wuala API
Official Wuala API group
It's cool! Join today
Got something to say? Want to tell us how your experience of Wuala? Leave us a comment above.
Donna Jackson
Social Communications Specialist
Wisequeen
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 12:07PM 
