Torque Adds a BitTorrent Client to Your Browser or Web App

BitTorrent is a wonderful technology, for all the bad rep it gets for its use in copyright-infringing file sharing. The problem is getting more people to use and making it easier for those people to use it. One of the big hurdles is that it can be quite confusing to the average internet users. You need a dedicated client and to fiddle around with .torrent files or magnet links.

BitTorrent Inc,. the company that sprung up from the creation of the P2P protocol and now develops uTorrent and other technologies built around BitTorrent, has announced Torque, essentially, BitTorrent for your browser.

Torque is a JavaScript library/browser plugin that enables web developers to add BitTorrent functionality, including a full-fledged client, to their web apps, browser extensions and so on.

To showcase what can be done with the new tool, BitTorrent introduced a Chrome extension that makes it possible to download files via BitTorrent completely through the browser, and Paddle Over, a drag-and-drop file sharing web app/service.

"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," BitTorrent explained.

"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," it said.

You can check out both OneClick, the browser plugin, and Paddle Over, over at BitTorrent's Torque Labs. Better yet, you can grab the source code for these two applications plus the BTapp.js library that powers Torque from GitHub and start playing with it.

Via: Torque Adds a BitTorrent Client to Your Browser or Web App