Introducing BitTorrent Torque

[BrianBosworth]

For the last few days, there's been quite a buzz about this.

Over a decade ago we introduced BitTorrent technology and BitTorrent clients, and the Internet was profoundly changed. This week we are aiming to revolutionize the web once again by integrating the power of BitTorrent with the most familiar experience on a computer: the browser. Today, we are proud to announce the alpha release of BitTorrent Torque.

BitTorrent Torque is a JavaScript interface to a custom torrent client that exposes all the power of BitTorrent to web developers. Simply put, it allows anyone to utilize our powerful technology to create completely fresh and new experiences for users with just a couple lines of code.

This alpha allows BitTorrent to move beyond desktop clients. We believe web developers are pioneers when it comes to creating beautiful, intuitive user experiences. Torque will empower them to create powerful applications that will appeal to broad audiences. To demonstrate this, today we are also launching Torque Labs. Torque Labs showcases various web apps that demonstrate just a fraction of what can be achieved using Torque. These demos include:

Paddle Over: Drag and drop file transfers between computers, social sharing tools, social network integration and more.

OneClick: Turn your torrent downloads into normal in-browser downloads.

Torque is another step towards our commitment to empowering both developers and users. We strongly believe in this technology and the impact it can have. Torque Labs is part of our ongoing commitment to maintain an open conversation between our developers and our developer community. We are confident that together we can create some really kick-ass applications.

Find out more at torque.bittorrent.com

Introducing BitTorrent Torque | The Official BitTorrent Blog

[Makeawish]

Oh my.. this is another awesome development in Bittorrent technology....

[slikrapid]

we are aiming to revolutionize the web once again by integrating the power of BitTorrent with the most familiar experience on a computer: the browser.

sure, why not bloat the browsers some more until at some point all apps run as browser tabs...maybe its time to change the name 'browser' into 'jack of all trades'

BitTorrent Torque is a JavaScript interface

ouch, java is ofc well known for its speedy interface(s)

OneClick: Turn your torrent downloads into normal in-browser downloads.

which will ofc be a dumbed-down & less efficient/able version of the current standalone clients

I would not rely on these for anonymity.

seems privacy is of no/little concern to 'torque' devs

a vimeo type site could really reduce their server costs buy utilizing torrents.

yup, take advantage of user bandwidth to reduce company costs (which equals increased profit), make them indirectly work for the company - this part will probably be the main reason why torque (or its variations) might/will succeed

[anon]

Paddle Over: Drag and drop file transfers between computers, social sharing tools, social network integration and more.

OneClick: Turn your torrent downloads into normal in-browser downloads.

I tried to test the these, and both require that you install a browser addon.

sure, why not bloat the browsers some more until at some point all apps run as browser tabs...maybe its time to change the name 'browser' into 'jack of all trades'

It's already being done with Google's Chrome OS, it seems. And I've always been skeptical of attempts to integrate everything into a single app, too. A browser should be a browser, a text editor should be a text editor, a torrent client should be a torrent client. When you lose that focus, quality tends to degrade.

ouch, java is ofc well known for its speedy interface(s)

I guess you're confusing Java with JavaScript? The latter is fast, being originally designed to do tricks for which Java was too cumbersome. And these days browsers fight to see which one has the fastest JavaScript virtual machine (Chrome and IE9 are the current winners).