Although I've heard many cursing rapidshare and begging for alternative download links on mediafire and other services, the recent changes changes made RS to be my favorite file sharing service, and it will make it many others' favorite.
Rapidshare downloads became easier than ever.
After a couple of months of hard time for free users struggling to cope with hard-to-read captcha and discerning cats from dogs, RS updated to one of most advanced captchas for a while. Finally, RS decided to get rid of all captchas. Here is a screenshot of what free users will encounter when trying to access a rapidshare download.
Just click and you will be brought to the countdown timer without having to fulfill any captcha.
~~~Excerpt from
rapidshare news section~~~
No more captchas - higher flexibility for premium-users
July 02, 2008
By eliminating the captchas we simplified the use of RapidShare's free services significantly. In addition, free-users can now upload and download bigger files (up to 200 megabyte). Anyhow, to protect RapidShare from congestion caused by automated downloading, we limited the maximum download speed for free‐users to 500 kilobit per second. To compensate for that, they do not have to wait anymore until starting a succeeding download.
Premium-users now profit from more flexibility regarding the download volume: It used to be limited to 10 gigabyte per day and can be "saved" now to a maximum of 50 Gigabyte. As a consequence, the volume that was not used is transferred to the following day automatically, up to a maximum of 50 gigabyte. If the complete download capacity is used up during one day, the premium-user is able to save another 10 gigabyte the following day.
~~~End of excerpt~~~
Rapidshare's new move demonstrates their intelligence in marketing and caring about customers. No hard barriers to access your desired download will bring more customers to be enthusiasts about the improved service, while offering improved performance for a reasonable premium fee brings more customers and more profits.
Furthermore, the possibility to collect Rapid Points for downloads of your files, and to convert the points into extension of your account or into new Premium Accounts, gives a great advantage for members who not just download files, but who also do share.
If you have something to share for many users, either some viral content or a multitude of demanded downloads, and you can generate sufficient number of Rapid Points, you can keep enjoying the convenience of your Premium account for free.
If you haven't tried yet the new RapidShare as it is since July 2, just go and give it a try right now.
http://rapi**dshare.com/files/127594670/links-6-July-2008.xls
Then come back to this thread and share your experience.
No more captchas on Rapidshare
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