Where Did All The Megaupload Traffic Go To?

Megaupload was one of the most visited sites on the Internet before its take down earlier this month. No one up until now looked at the consequences of that takedown in regards to the traffic the site received. Did it just go *poof* or did users flock to other sites instead to do whatever they have been doing on Megaupload?

One way to find out is to look at Alexa’s comparison chart. Alexa computes a site’s global and local rank from data gathered by its toolbar and a number of additional sources. While not 100% accurate, it can give an indication of a site’s traffic performance over time.

Even better, you can key in up to four competitive sites to compare their performance with the selected site. When you do that for Megaupload, and the four sites ThePiratebay, Rapidshare, Mediafire and Filesonic, you come up with the following graph.

Megaupload was shut down on January 20, and you can see a big drop shortly thereafter (the blue line). The site stayed on a high level nevertheless. This is explained by users still clicking on links leading to the site. While these links return a 404 error, Alexa may still count the visits. It is likely that the site will slowly drop to 0 over the coming months.

You also see that Filesonic experienced a drop. This is because of the site’s announcement that they would block the site’s file sharing component.

The Piratebay on the other hand saw a huge increase in daily reach a few days after the takedown. The site went over the 1.5 daily reach mark in percent which it never crossed before in January. Mediafire saw a big jump in traffic as well during that same time. Rapidshare, another file hosting company saw a lighter increase.

This is no proof obviously, and traffic may have increased because of other reasons. It is however likely that Megaupload and Filesonic users simply moved on to use other services. And those are not only file hosting related, considering that The Piratebay’s traffic increased as well. What’s your take on the matter?

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Megaupload Captcha Auto Fill About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday February 1, 2012 -
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After Megaupload, How To Backup Your Online Files

Users who have been using the file hosting service Megaupload to host their own files were in for quite a shock when they received notice that authorities had taken down all company servers and files. For some it meant to upload the files again to another file hosting service, others who only had copies of the files on the hosting site realized that they did not have options to get their files back.

Uploading files to just another hoster is however no guarantee that the files stay available for a longer time. It should be clear by now that you need to have backups available either locally or in another location to reduce the likelihood that you will lose the data completely.

Mirror Services

One option that you have is to use so called mirror services such as Mirror Creator to distribute the files to multiple online hosting services. If one or two go down, you still have them available on others that you have selected.

The process of uploading files to those hosters is almost identical, with the difference that you cannot make use of existing accounts and their benefits.

Select files that you want to upload from your computer. A file limit is always displayed, in the case of MirrorCreator it is 500 Megabytes for free users.Select the file hosting services you want to distribute your files to. Free users can select up to ten services.Start to upload the files once, the mirror creation service will take care of the rest.

Here is a short list of file mirror creation services:

Gazup! – Supports six services in total, maximum file size 400 Megabyte if only four are selected.Upload On All – Supports 12 services in total of which ten can be selected for distribution. Maximum file size is 300 Megabytes per upload.Digzip – Lets you pick eight mirrors from a list of 18. Maximum upload size is 200 Megabytes.Multi Upload – Upload to a total of nine different file hosting servicesUpload Mirrors – Select up to 14 mirror servers where you want your files to be hosted. No information about file size limitations posted on site.

You can search for file hosting mirrors and similar phrases to find more services that distribute files for you.

Nothing changes for free users who stay below the upload maximum. Users who need to upload larger files have a few options as well. They could split the files using software like 7-zip or Haozip for this. Other services may be offered, for instance the option to delete uploads again, that are not available when mirror uploading services are used.

If you want to use a specific service, for instance because of the account benefits it provides, you should consider backing up your data at a second cloud hosting service to avoid total data loss if that particular services is no longer available. A suggestion here would be to use a backup and synchronization provider like Dropbox, or if more storage space is required Skydrive from Microsoft. This means however that you will have to upload the files at least twice for this. You could alternatively back them on a local device if you do not want to waste the bandwidth.

Have another suggestion? Lets discuss it in the comments.

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Megaupload Down, Here Are Some Alternatives About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday January 23, 2012 -
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Megaupload Fallout Continues, Filesonic Removes File Sharing

Megaupload, one of the world’s top file sharing and storage sites, has been taken down on request of US authorities on Thursday. Arrests have been made in various countries and assets as well as the service’s websites and servers have been seized.

No files were accessible anymore on the servers after the takedown, which had serious consequences for users who used the file hosting site for just that: to host their own files.

Users looking for a Megaupload alternative can check out our quick overview of file hosting services.

The Megaupload fallout has not ended yet though, as some file sharing sites have begun to change their business model, likely to avoid the fate of the service.

When you visit Filesonic’s website today you will notice an announcement on the frontpage that states:

All sharing functionality on Filesonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally

Users who try to download files see the following message instead on the Filesonic website:

All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally.

If this file belongs to you, please login to download it directly from your file manager.

But FileSonic is not the only file sharing site that made changes to their business model after the Megaupload bust. Uploaded, another popular file sharing service, started to block visitors from the United States. Visitors from the United States see a blue landing page that tells them that the service is no longer available in their country.

Both file sharing companies are registered outside the United States. FileSonic operates from the Netherlands while Uploaded from Hong Kong.

Neither FileSonic nor Uploaded have released statements about the changes yet. There is no certainty that Megaupload’s takedown had anything to do with the decision but the proximity of events would suggest it did.

What’s going to happen next? It is likely that FileSonic will lose a good chunk of their traffic in the coming weeks. Users will move on and use other file sharing services to share files. It needs to be point out that this does not necessarily mean illegal activities. File sharing sites are ideal to share small to medium sized files with friends and family as well.

Users who have personal files on file sharing sites should consider making a backup of those files just in case. Services like Dropbox allow you to store files in the cloud, along with synchronization options and sharing.

Update: It appears that Fileserve has started to make changes as well. The file hosts affiliate program page is no longer accessible on the site, and according to Neowin, users are reporting that their accounts have been terminated. The message they receive when they log in states the following:

Unsuccessful login
Your account has been disabled due to violations of our Terms and Conditions

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Improve Firefox Private Browsing With Private Browsing Window Add-on About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday January 23, 2012 -
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Megaupload Shuts Down, Arrests Have Been Made

The popular file hosting site Megaupload has been shut down by US authorities on Thursday, and the site’s leaders have been charged with widespread online copyright infringement. According to an US Department of Justice press release, Megaupload generated more than “$175 million in criminal proceeds” and caused more than “half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners”.

Seven members of the site and two corporations – Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited – were indicted by a grand jury in Virgina, and charged “with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement”.

Arrests have been made in New Zealand, were Megaupload founder Kim Schmitz and three others were arrested at the request of US officials. According to The Verge, a total of 20 search warrants have been issued in the US and eight other countries including The Netherlands, Germany, Canada and Australia. In addition, assets worth more than $50 million US Dollars have been seized as well as 18 domain names associated with the business.

Users who try to open the Megaupload website, any of the site’s inner pages, hosted files or one of the related domain names will notice that all connections time out. Megaupload, which has been listed as one of the top 100 sites at Alexa, and its cousin site Megavideo, in the sub 200 rankings, have been two of the most popular file sharing sites on the Internet.

The core question that many Internet users will have right now is if this will affect other file sharing services like Rapidshare as well.

If you read the Department of Justice press release thoroughly you will notice that much of it can be applied to nearly every popular file sharing site on the Internet.

A business model expressly designed to promote uploading of the most popular copyrighted works for many millions of users to downloadA structure to discourage the vast majority of its users from using Megaupload for long-term or personal storage by automatically deleting content that was not regularly downloadedA rewards program that would provide users with financial incentives to upload popular content and drive web traffic to the site, often through user-generated websites known as linking sites.

Will we see a ripple effect? What’s your take? (via Neowin)

Update: The Department of Justice website, as well as several music industry related websites are currently targeted by Anonymous as a response to the take down of Megaupload. More information here at The Next Web.

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Megaupload Down, Here Are Some Alternatives

Megaupload Down, Here Are Some Alternatives .download-info .download-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/downloadbutton.gif);}.download-info .more-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/morebutton.gif);} HomeWindowsLinuxSoftwareInternet ExplorerFirefoxChromeOperaEmailContactAdvertiseMegaupload Down, Here Are Some Alternatives

If you are a regular Megaupload user you have probably already noticed that the site and all of the files hosted on its servers are no longer accessible on the Internet. Check out Megaupload Shuts Down, Arrests Have Been Made for an overview of what happened in the past 24 hours.

Internet users who have been using Megaupload regularly or sporadically for file hosting or downloads are now left with the task of finding a comparable service that they can use for these operations.

Probably one of the first file hosts to be mentioned in this regard is Filesonic, as it is providing the same upload size limit of 1 Gigabyte per file and unlimited storage. The site has an affiliate program that rewards affiliate for bringing new users to the site or for downloads. Please note that you need an account before you can start to upload files to the service.

MediaFire on the other hand is a free and simple file host. The biggest advantage of the service is that you can upload files right away without having to create an account first. The maximum file size for free accounts is 200 Megabytes which is considerably lower than the 1 Gigabyte supported by Filesonic.

Rapidshare is another popular file hosting service. It too requires you to create an account before you can start hosting files on the Rapidshare server. Rapidshare has no file size limitations when it comes to uploading files to the server. Free users have to endure wait times and slower download speeds though on the download side of things.

Oron lets you upload files with a size of up to 400 Megabytes directly on the site’s frontpage. Registered users can upload files with a size of up to 1024 Megabytes, which is also the maximum download size for free and registered users of the service. The site has an affiliate program in place that rewards uploaders and sites in various ways, for instance by paying per download or sale.

Here is a selection of additional hosts that you can use to upload files to or earn money from:

Multishare – Up to 5120 Megabytes, 3 files max per upload. Pays 67% of all premium sales and rebills.Content Cooperation – Pays for a variety of services, including uploading or promoting files.Uploading – Files with a maximum size of 5 Gigabyte can be uploaded to the file hosting service. Multiple revenue models available including pay per download or sale.

Which file hosting service would you recommend as a Megaupload alternative? Lets hear some suggestions in the comments.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday January 20, 2012 -
Tags:file host, megaupload

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Responses so far:Sina says: January 20, 2012 at 3:47 am

also Wupload, HotFile and Megashare are good alternatives.

ReplyRichard Steven Hack says: January 20, 2012 at 4:42 am

Wupload sucks for free downloaders. It’s speeds are some of the lowest around. NEVER use Wupload!

Rapidshare is the best, but if you’re uploading copyrighted content, make sure you rename the file or they are likely to find it and delete it at some point.

Fileserve is another good site for free downloaders; it’s speeds are usually good.

ReplyMidnight says: January 20, 2012 at 7:20 am

There are and always will be…Alternatives!

ReplySixBlades says: January 20, 2012 at 8:56 am

only 170mil?
(they been operating since 05 )

ReplyMidnight says: January 20, 2012 at 10:51 am

Yep! Question is, why didn’t the authorities attempt to shut them down, when it was one million, rather than wait ’til 170 million?

The answer is posted below.

ReplyCool says: January 20, 2012 at 9:22 am

Megaupload is the best hosting on the planet. They barely have problem as what most of their competitor does, their website up time is 100% unlike site like Filesonic. They fail and ban suspicious IP and this affect to user like me who share the same connection on my university hostel line.

And yeah, I have all my stuff backed up on Megaupload I will be dead if this is a permanent closure. But lets wait and see.

ReplyMidnight says: January 20, 2012 at 10:48 am

Backing up all your stuff on a Hosting site isn’t the smartest thing to do, as you now understand, although safer than on the Cloud!
A Portable H/D would be better and in the case of movies and music, a Large Portable H/D.

I kinda doubt if Megaupload will be permanently shut down, as what the authorities did was totally illegal!

There’s something called due process and the presumption of innocent, until found guilty, IN A COURT OF LAW!!!
That never happened!!

The authorities were trying to score brownie points with Congress in Washington in preparation for SOPA/PIPA and that will back fire and blow up in their faces!!

Now, Anonymous is retaliating in a big way, telling the Government that they don’t own the Internet, they don’t know it. don’t understand it, that it belongs to the people and to keep their noses out of it or suffer the consequences!!

Regardless, the authorities temporarily brought down one site, while there are many, many more still alive and kicking!!

ReplyMark Ess says: January 20, 2012 at 6:10 pm

To clarify, the apprehensions were properly executed. More specifically, warrants were issued based upon evidence presented before a judge on January 5, 2012, and proper procedures had to have been followed in order to obtain assistance from authorities in other countries. The arrests processes took a couple of weeks to coordinate – actually, they’re still ongoing – and were the culmination of a few years of investigation…

The authorities did what they are charged to do on our behalf. Politics and public opinion and timing be damned! There are no congressional brownie points to be had; if anything, however, with regard to SOPA & PIPA and the organizations & lobbyists behind them, this very public police action could very well turn into a death blow for such legislation – and rightfully so!

For now, attorneys will be taking over on all sides; then, judges and juries will be empaneled. For anyone criminally prosecuted under US jurisdiction, innocence or illegality is ascertained only via due process – which is just as Midnight extolled. All involved WILL get their days in court, as the saying basically goes…

Leah says: January 20, 2012 at 5:32 pm

Martin, you forgot to add that with Oron as a registered user and get 250 GB of free storage and get unlimited storage as a Oron Premium member. Then as a premium user you can share your files with size up to 2GB and download files from Oron with unlimited speed. See more on: http://www.oron-premium.com. I would also recommend Mediafire because of the option to share folders with files inside and low waiting times for free users.

ReplyMidnight says: January 20, 2012 at 6:45 pm

@Mark Ess,

Actually, while the apprehensions might have been properly executed, shutting down Megaupload, PRIOR to evidence/proof of any wrong doing being presented to a judge and a guilty conviction being announced, was Illegal, no matter how you look at it.

The owners/operators of the Pirate Bay were first charged, had their day in court, were found guilty, yet their web site is still operational!

The owners of Megaupload were not (yet) given their day in court, Not found Guilty of any wrong doing, therefore, shutting down the web site was as stated… Illegal!!

The lawyers will have a filed day with this one, for sure!!

Keep in mind that there were also Legal content posted on Megaupload, so that just might sway a guilty conviction.

Time will tell!!

ReplyDanTe says: January 20, 2012 at 6:52 pm

I’m sincerely hoping you’re not Megaupload’s legal counsel. They’ll be permanently shut down – bad bad bad.

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