WebTorrent: BitTorrent lands also on websites
WebTorrent promises to combine the advantages of the system to web content delivery in P2P. Netflix interesting technology and the Internet Archive to make more efficient streaming video.
When BitTorrent was launched in 2002, it was a very interesting technology. Now he has lost much of its charm, and has been replaced on the Web focuses on the services and streaming services in the cloud, but at the time was among the most effective and reliable protocols for sharing files in bulk. But a new draft of Feross Aboukhadijeh, a graduate of Stanford University, could combine the traditional web to BitTorrent protocol for file sharing.
Just he graduated Aboukhadijeh founded PeerCDN, a network for content delivery assisted in P2P. The start-up was sold to Yahoo in late 2013. Since then deals with WebTorrent, service based on the idea of ” websites powered by the visitors. ” Idea ” too revolutionary to be locked into a proprietary software, ” said the creator of WebTorrent, efficient for those Web sites that generate a large traffic of certain types of content.
It is clear that a service like this finds its natural place in a portal for the video-sharing, such as YouTube, and reminds a bit distant what was Popcorn Time. This was a service that was trying to ” democratize ” the user experience (illegal) BitTorrent, enclosing it in a beautiful interface and extremely simple to use, just like Netflix or YouTube. The concept behind WebTorrent not much different but expands across the web.
So not only do video sharing sites, but potentially any website that generates a large amount of traffic that runs on compatible browsers such as Chrome and Firefox. WebTorrent uses the standard WebRTC, it is written entirely in JavaScript and does not require installation of any extension from the user to run correctly. It should be implemented by the service, and the user can enjoy its benefits in an almost completely unaware.
Precisely for this Aboukhadijeh has already been contacted by some big names for his WebTorrent, and among these is of course Netflix. The giant video-sharing on-demand has shown interest in the technology for streaming of its content on the web, with WebTorrent that could relieve the server owners of much of the load to which they are often subjected, especially during peak hours ” the service could ensure the best quality even at peak times, when the connection between ISPs and server Netflix is congested, ” said the computer.
On the web are already available some examples of how to leverage technology even beyond the simple viewing of audio-video streaming, such as βTorrent, a client torrent fully functional browser, or File.pizza to share files. The same technology can be used for web services that do not require a server. So far, the interest it has aroused on third-party services (in addition to Netflix is also Internet Archive) was exclusively related to media content delivery.
When Aboukhadijeh is studying how to make WebTorrent fully compatible with the traditional client, element which currently represents one of the main obstacles to the spread of technology.
