The recently funded Box.net started out as a hosted file storage service and quickly moved in to the file-sharing space. With some recent upgrades that enabled users to interact with their items in new and direct ways, such as photo-editing or creating a Zazzle t-shirt, box.net became one of the few file-sharing services to participate with the majority of ongoing trends for the social networking and integrated space.
The company's most recent update is called "Collaboration" Beta, which sort of combines the file-sharing and interactive portions of box.net's services. What the Collaboration Beta does is lets users share folders with colleagues, friends, family, etc. who also have box.net accounts. Others can be invited as collaborators as well.
[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]So instead of merely sharing a file with another user, there are now options for utilizing box.net as more of a unifying service for keeping track of shared items. Email alerts are sent to collaborators so everyone is aware of when new items have been added. The new collaboration tools are also fully compatible with OpenBox. All collaboration folders are colored blue, so you can easily distinguish them from regular folders. Version history is available with a premium account.