Rapidspread is a a simple file upload site that automatically forwards your files to as many as 10 filesharing sites. From the upload page, simply browse for your file(s), agree to the terms of service, and click share. Once the upload is complete, RapidSpread displays a URL to send to your friends as well as direct links to your file on the supported hosts it's been transferred to.

My test rar file successfully uploaded to eight of the ten possible hosts - not too shabby. When I chose to upload several images, RapidSpread was even smart enough to limit mirroring to the media-sharing services (ImageShack, Badongo, ZShare, and ZippyShare).

Anyone that uploads files on a regular basis will appreciate the simplicity and power of RapidSpread. If the developers would just intergrate a short URL service like bit.ly, this would be a truly killer service. Give it a shot, and see how it stacks up against your favorite service.

Thanks for the tip, Eran!

Can't decide whether to upload a file to Rapidshare, MegaUpload, Badongo, or another service? Each site basically offers the same service. You can upload files and share the link with friends or strangers over emal, IM, web sites, or user forums. But some of the services might be blocked by various ISPs, or the people you're trying to share the files with might have registered accounts with one site, but not the others.

Uploadjockey solves these admittedly small problems by making it easy to upload your files to multiple sites. Just grab any file under 100MB from your desktop, and Uploadjockey will send it to six different file sharing sites and provide you with download links.

Beware, the Uploadjockey interface is choc full of obtrusive ads and pop-ups. But if you're willing to brave the advertising, we can't think of a simpler way to upload you large files to multiple sites.

[via GHacks]

We stumbled across two useful tools for finding and downloading files from sites like RapidShare and MegaUpload in the last few days. SizzledCore has an interesting article on RapidShare Happy Hours detector, a utility that notifies you when RapidShare Happy Hours are in effect. In case you're not familiar with Happy Hours, they're basically limited periods of time when any user can act like premium members and download all the files they want from RapidShare without waiting for a countdown timer to reach zero first.

The other site we ran across was WoonzFiles, a search engine for files on RapidShare, MegaUpload, and a handful of other file sharing sites. These sites are designed to let users upload files and provide a link that can be shared. They're not really meant for browsing, and they have no search functions of their own. But WoonzFiles makes it relatively easy to find songs, movies, programs, and other files on the sites. The only problem is that you have to search one site again. We were kind of hoping that you could search several sites at once.

And that got us thinking. We know that WoonzFiles isn't the first RapidShare search engine out there. What do you use to find files on RapidShare and other file sharing sites? Do you have a good search engine for finding files and download links across multiple sites? Let us know in the comments.

Yesterday we looked at jDownloader, a Java-based download client for RapidShare, MegaUpload and several other file hosting services. And one of our readers asked why we don't just use RapGet. After playing around with RapGet a bit today, we have to say, it might just be a better option.

RapGet doesn't require Java, supports 50 languages, more than 60 file hosting sites, and doesn't spit out German text at you when the language is set to English.

The program doesn't attempt to get around download limits in any way. If you have a paid account with a service like RapidShare, you can use RapGet to manage your downloads. But you can also use it with free accounts. It will automatically enter CAPTCHA codes for you, download one file at a time, and wait a specified period of time before attempting to download your next file.

[Thanks NyaR!]

If you download a lot of files from free file hosting sites like RapidShare and MegaUpload, but are tired of entering Captchas and waiting for your downloads to begin, jDownloader can help. jDownloader is a download manager that works with both sites, plus a few others. It lets you queue up a bunch of files which it will then proceed to download in the background. It can even read Captchas, which means you don't have to be near your computer when the downloads start.

The program does have a few quirks. First, jDownloader requires Java to run and you don't install it like a regular Windows application. Rather, you download and extract the contents of a ZIP file and then click the jDownloader.jar file to start the program.

Look, we know the reports of RapidShare's demise a few weeks ago were greatly exaggerated. And we're not trying to cry wolf here, but now the German file sharing service has suffered a major blow in a German court. And that could result in RapidShare either being shut down or having to find some way to implement a copyright filter. Either way, the RapidShare we've all come to know and love/hate may never be the same. At least for German users.

The German royalties collection agency GEMA, which is basically like Germany's version of the RIAA, took RapidShare to court a while back. And last week a court ruled that RapidShare couldn't hide behind the "we don't know what our users are uploading" defense.

Of course, RapidShare can still appeal the ruling, so this isn't over yet. But it's no secret that there are plenty of pirated movies, music, and software applications hosted on RapidShare at the moment. So we don't expect GEMA to step aside anytime soon.

RapidShare, the popular file hosting site used by developers and pirates alike has apparently been shut down at least temporarily by a court order. Heise Online is reporting that GEMA, a German royalties collection agency has filed a complaint against RapidShare, claiming that the service hosts copyrighted materials, which it's fairly safe to say is true.

GEMA wants RapidShare to provide details on how many files hosted on the site are copyrighted works of GEMA members. RapidShare has historically said that it does not inspect the files uploaded by users. We've seen companies like YouTube demonstrate in recent years that it is possible to build copyright detection software to inspect for illegally uploaded files. But we've also seen that no system so far is foolproof, so it should be interesting to see if RapidShare fights the complaint, promises to implement some sort of filters, or fades off into oblivion.

Another open question is what will happen to all the RapidShare members who have shelled out money for paid accounts? While RapidShare has provided some basic services for free, users have to pay subscription fees for access to faster downloads and and simultaneous downloads.

Update: As several people have pointed out in the comments, RapidShare appears to be back online. The reports of a site shutdown were apparently false and everything is back to normal.

[via TechShout, thanks Omar!]