AfterDawn: News

Opera adds BitTorrent support to browser

Opera has added BitTorrent support to its web browser, making it the first browser with native support for BitTorrent sharing. Up until now, an external client like Bram Cohen's BitTorrent or an alternative client like Azureus was needed to initiate BitTorrent downloads. BitTorrent has become widely used to share huge files because of its speed and reliability, making it the biggest way online to share copyrighted material.

However, since BitTorrent has vast amounts of legitimate uses, it's safe from any legal problems from content owners when third parties use the technology to infringe copyright. It makes it very easy to spread large files to literally thousands of people without huge bandwidth costs so it is used by many developers and companies to distribute files on a low budget.



It is likely that many other web browsers will add support for BitTorrent over time as it becomes more widely used. Its use is already growing at huge rates, causing other software companies to write their own sharing technology modelled on BitTorrent. The biggest example is Microsoft's take on BitTorrent, which the company has called Avalanche. However it is unlikely Avalanche would ever dethrone BitTorrent.

You can download Opera from Filepedia.com.

Source:
Betanews

Written by: James Delahunty @ 6 Jul 2005 15:16

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• 7 comments

• malcdogg

  Interesting.

  6.7.2005 15:49 #1

• Auslander

  now, if only there was a version of FireFox with this feature...

  6.7.2005 16:46 #2

• Alien13

  Then FireFox would be the ULTIMATE browser.

  6.7.2005 22:13 #3

• A_Hind

  I have to admit Opera has been the best browser for ages, this just makes it more superior

  6.7.2005 23:32 #4

• spooky2k

  Opera is great if you know all the shortcuts. if not, its pretty useless. But i do agree, that if you know the shortcuts, its awesome. Summary: Opera is great for dedicated users, not the average user.
  
  Firefox is all round great and simple to use. Summary: Its a great browser for the average user.
  
  2 different markets, taken by 2 different browsers. Let's not argue over it.
  
  I agree that yes, FireFox with this built-in would be amazing.
  Dan x

  7.7.2005 03:57 #5

• Auslander

  that feature is probably on the way with FireFox.

  7.7.2005 04:16 #6

• nohelpme

  I like Opera for its low memory usage...a great browser for lower end computers. Also its very fast for web surfing and much more superior then ie.

  8.7.2005 04:40 #7