BitTorrent is working on introducing "featured" torrents in uTorrent

Aug 13, 2012 10:03 GMT  ·  By

uTorrent is by far the most popular BitTorrent client out there. Its initial success was due to its simplicity and frugal appetite for system resources. Unfortunately, those attributes have largely become mythical at this point, but the software was buoyed forward by the momentum.

It's still one of the best clients out there, if not the best, and for most people it's good enough. But BitTorrent, the company behind it still has to pay the bills.

As such, future versions of BitTorrent will be ad-supported. uTorrent already comes bundled with an annoying browser toolbar that will sneak its way into your computer if you're not careful.

But there will be no avoiding the ads in the future, they're going to be built into the cloud. Thankfully, BitTorrent is taking a smart approach, content as advertising as it were.

The "ads" will actually be a "featured" torrent at the top of your list which will link to movies, music, software or whatever else the advertisers want to promote.

Yet downloading it will be a voluntary action by the users, nothing will land on your computer without your consent. Plus, the way BitTorrent sees it, it may actually be a nice way of discovering new stuff you'll like and getting it, for free, onto your computer.

That's not to say that demo versions of software or games won't be advertised, movie trailers, music singles and so on. There are plenty of opportunities, but you'll still be getting something you can use and enjoy out of the deal.

"The next major change you will see is a fresh approach to creating a no-nonsense and free torrenting experience. You are all very familiar with how we have paid the bills so far. These new changes mark our next step towards finding that difficult balance between keeping our lights on and providing a positive user experience. This new build will display a featured torrent at the top of your torrent list," BitTorrent wrote in a forum post.

"This featured torrent space will be used to offer a variety of different types of content. We are working towards bringing you offers that are relevant to you. This means films, games, music, software...basically anything that you will find interesting. We may not get it right on the first try but we will continue to improve our efforts based on your feedback," it explained.