uTorrent Web launches
Bittorrent Inc, which was recently sold, has launched the first public version of uTorrent Web, a web-based torrent client optimized for streaming media.
While uTorrent is under heavy criticism ever since Bittorrent Inc began integrating adware, offers, advertisement and other unwanted things in the client, it is up to this day a very popular client for seeding and downloading torrent files.
We looked at a preview version of uTorrent Web in February 2018 after Bittorrent Inc revealed in 2017 that the next major version of uTorrent would be web-based.
Today, the final version of uTorrent Web that has been released for Windows. The company promises that a Mac version will follow soon; reason enough to take another look at the application.
Attention: Reports suggest that the Windows installer may include third-party offers for installation. I ran the installer twice on two different machines and did not get any. The offers may be limited to certain regions in the world or limited in other ways.
uTorrent Web
The uTorrent Web client runs on the local system after installation but all management options have been moved to the browser.
The interface should open automatically in the default browser on launch; if that is not the case you may click on the uTorrent Web icon in the System Tray area on Windows to launch it.
The main interface displays search functionality at the top and below that options to add torrents or magnet links to uTorrent Web.
Search is more or less useless at this point in time as it just redirects to a Google Search. If you search for EXAMPLE, search redirects to the search results page for EXAMPLE torrent on Google.
Adding torrents is quite easy. You may drag and drop torrent files to add them to uTorrent Web or use the "add" button to add magnet or torrent links instead.
Downloads start as soon as you have added a new torrent or magnet link and uTorrent Web switches to its media view which gives you options to play the first video of a torrent right then and there.
The media player has limited playback capabilities. Mp4 video files worked fine for the most part but I got only audio or no playback at all for other video formats.
The downloading happens in the background and it worked fine out of the box. Users should not expect a wealth of configuration options at this point in time though. In fact, the only download related options right now are to limit the upload and download bandwidth in the settings.
Note that downloads continue for as long as the uTorrent Web process runs on the local system; this is the case even if you close the web interface. If you want torrent downloads to stop, you need to close the client on the local system.
uTorrent Web plays the first media file it encounters by default. You may click on the files button next to a torrent to display all files it contains. From there it is just a matter of selecting a different file or format to play it.
Whether it is possible to play the video file right away depends largely on the device's download speed and the seeders of the torrent.
Included media files played nearly instantly in some cases but they may not do so in others.
Files included in a torrent get downloaded to the local system so that you may play them locally at any time as well; this is useful for files that uTorrent Web's player can't play.
Note that uTorrent Web limits downloads to media files currently. The application did download avi, mp4, or ogv files included in a torrent but did not download xml or gif files. You need to click on files and toggle the download switch for excluded files to have them downloaded as well and you may use the feature to block files from being downloaded.
A setting to always download all files is not available. Basic torrent management options are provided by the web client. You can open the local folder of the torrent or remove the torrent from the local system.
The client supports sort and filter options, and you may pause, stop, or force downloads using the action menu.
Closing Words
uTorrent Web works surprising well. The main thing the application has going for it right now is that it is super simple to use and that users can start to stream media files included in torrents shortly after they have added the torrent to the download queue.
There are downsides, however: the media player lacks support for many common media formats and options to customize the application are scarce.
May not be a problem for some users but most probably like more control over the torrent client.
Now You: What is your take on uTorrent Web?
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.