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Sunday, 12 August 2012 16:09

Adverts coming to uTorrent

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One of the most popular torrent clients is uTorrent (used monthly by around 125 million users for downloading) will start to serve adverts within its software in the near future.  An announcement stated that ads will be linked with the content of the torrents a user downloads, whether it is a legal or illegal download. uTorrent already makes decent money, between $15-20 million per year, thanks to a toolbar for web browsers that is installed as a part of  the install package. However that doesnt seem to be enough for its directors so they hope to make more with the ads they will introduce in the new version

In an announcement on the official forum uTorrent said "This update includes improvements and changes that we think you are going to like", but that is not the case with users that replied to the thread. The First thing most users complain about is tracking theirs habits and data they download. No one likes it when someone is looking at their private data, especially when you take in mind that a lot of torrents people download are not legal.  

Administrators then explained what will really happen "We will NOT suddenly be aware of your identity and your activity because, as you know, that’s now even how our technology works. So you won’t be getting even close to the types of personalized offers you get from Web sites that track your browsing history.

BUT, that doesn’t mean we can’t know anything. For example, even at a general level we know our torrent users are more interested in learning about downloads of emerging artists, new free games, or a really good, free security solution than they are about the wide range of offers one might encounter elsewhere on the Web. And as we release offers to users, we’ll find out which are generally popular and which aren’t and improve. Through means like these, we hope to make ads more relevant and interesting over time."

The second thing most users complain about is that you won’t be able to turn the off ads, when you close one, another one will show up. We expect BitTorrent to make this into a good thing for them. If they work this right they are sure to attract more companies that will try to get advantage with these ads.
During the installation you will bump into ads like this one :
utorrent 1
utorrent 2
What will happen after this becomes implemented is left to be seen, we would like to ask our readers what Torrent client do you use, and would you mind if you had to see ads in it?

[Ed – It is important to remember that while many may use BitTorrent for illegal downloads not everyone does. BitTorrent is a popular method for downloading Linus Distros and we have even seen it popup for larger Microsoft downloads. Still there is a danger with some of the Torrent download software especially ones that push ads through the use of a browser add-in or other medium. These can lead to the installation of malware just like any other tool bar can. Not matter what you are interested in downloading, be sure to keep an up-to-date anti-malware product on your system and scan each and every item you download, even if it is from a trusted source.]

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Read 3044 times Last modified on Sunday, 12 August 2012 16:18

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