uTorrent Browser Toolbar Mystery Causes Confusion

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Mike

uTorrent’s parent company BitTorrent Inc. recently signed up with a new toolbar partner. Last week millions of users got the offer to install this new addon with the upgrade to uTorrent 2.2, but it appears that it wasn’t that optional for everyone. Several disappointed users report that the Conduit toolbar was installed without notice, or even when they explicitly opted out. The uTorrent team regrets the dissatisfaction and is trying to get to the root of the problem.

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For a year a bundled browser toolbar has been one of themain sources of income for uTorrent’s parent company BitTorrent Inc. The toolbar is offered to new users and is offered as an option with fresh installs.

With a few dozen million downloads a year, the added browser toolbar has provided BitTorrent Inc and the uTorrent development team with a healthy and much needed revenue stream. Initially, the Ask toolbar was promoted but recently a switch was made to the Conduit toolbar.

In addition to offering the toolbar to users who do a fresh install of the uTorrent client, the new Conduit toolbar was also promoted to users who upgraded to the latest uTorrent 2.2 release. However, this process didn’t go as smoothly as it should for everyone, and several our readers reported serious issues during the upgrade process.

Instead of getting a popup notification asking the user if they wanted to install the Conduit browser toolbar, it was instead installed on some users’ computers without any notification at all. Another group of users did get the popup, but when they chose not to install the toolbar, the software was installed on their computers nonetheless.

Over the last few days the uTorrent forums have been filling up with several of these confused users, and others wrote blog posts addressing this unexpected behavior and their frustration.

Despite several complaints the issues seem to be relatively isolated. We’ve tried to reproduce the “bug” on several systems but at our end everything went fine. Simon Morris, Vice President of product management at BitTorrent Inc. told us that they have no idea what went wrong either, but that they are aware of isolated issues.

“It has not escaped our notice and it is obviously NOT our intent,” Morris said.

Initially BitTorrent Inc. and uTorrent’s forum moderators denied that there was a problem at all. Instead, they were convinced that users must have selected the wrong checkboxes, which can be perceived as deceptive by some. However, this position became harder to hold as time went by and complaints kept coming in.

“We have seen some isolated suggestions that the toolbar installed even though the checkboxes were unselected. If this is indeed true then we would consider it a very serious bug. If anyone can help us reproduce this type of bug then we will investigate it and fix it immediately. In spite of extensive tests we have been unable to reproduce this particular problem,” he added.

uTorrent Browser Bar

Image is Loading.... Morris further said that because of this massive rollout to all upgrading users, the level of attention is probably more amplified than usual. Many long time users see the toolbar offer for the first time and might be caught by surprise, or confused by the checkboxes. Although this is partially true, it would be wrong to simply deny that something went wrong during the upgrade process for some people.

The uTorrent team has promised to get to the bottom of the issue, and fix any errors that they come across.

“Both our team and Conduit’s team have been investigating further whether there is any problem with the install, but we have been unable to find any evidence that the toolbar will ever install if you deselect all 3 checkboxes. Conduit has found and is fixing one minor uninstall issue,” Morris said.

“We regret any dissatisfaction, and we welcome inputs on anything that may be going wrong. One thing is very clear – the offer is designed to be purely optional, such that if you deselect the offer checkboxes it will not install,” he added.

All uTorrent users who had the Conduit toolbar installed ‘accidentally’ can easily remove it via the Windows control panel where the software is listed as ‘Conduit’ and ‘uTorrent toolbar.’ Did you have any issues upgrading to the latest version of uTorrent or did it go smoothly? Please let us know and drop a comment.

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uTorrent Apps Arrive, Plus Free Movies and Privacy Features

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Mike

The uTorrent team has rolled out the stable release of uTorrent 2.2 today. The highly anticipated release is the first to open up BitTorrent’s App Studio to uTorrent’s 65 million users and introduces optimized proxy privacy settings. To emphasize the collaboration with independent artists, the launch of uTorrent 2.2 coincides with a promotion of the free-to-download film ‘Four Eyed Monsters’.

BitTorrent Inc. has been very active with the development of uTorrent this year. Among other things, the company pushed out two experimental clients (codenamed Falcon and Griffin) from where new features were tested in public. One of the most discussed features has been uTorrent’s support for Apps.

BitTorrent Apps is a web-based extensions framework to add new functionality without compromising the lightness of the core BitTorrent client. Similar to other apps, addons and extensions in today’s web browsers and phones, the Javascript-based Apps allow 3rd party developers to create applications that will integrate seamlessly with the client. They can be added to the client with a single click and are displayed using an embedded browser window.

Initially the Apps were only been available to a relatively small group of uTorrent users who downloaded the experimental ‘Griffin‘ client. In September this test audience was expanded to the users of BitTorrent Inc’s Mainline client, and today the “Apps Studio” is made available to all uTorrent users, 65 million in total. The release of uTorrent 2.2 includes the Apps Studio and comes with a handful of Apps that are approved by BitTorrent, but users can also install unofficial Apps such as the EZTV one we featured previously.

One of the official Apps that are included is that of VODO, a platform where independent filmmakers share their work for free. To celebrate the fact that Apps are now bundled with uTorrent, VODO is releasing two new films today – ‘Four Eyed Monsters’ and ‘Snowblind‘. For the producers of these films, BitTorrent provides an opportunity to have their works seen by millions of people without having to worry about distribution problems.

“The barriers to filmmaking have fallen, but the gates around distribution through traditional TV, theatrical and video-on-demand remain locked,” says Arin Crumley, creator and star of ‘Four Eyed Monsters’. “With a user base of over 80 million [Mainline included], BitTorrent is exposing our film to an audience larger than many television networks and fostering a direct connection between audiences and filmmakers.”

“The creators who embrace this modern approach will encourage a new culture of audiences who support the production of movies they want to see and help distribute the ones in which they fall in love,” Crumley added.

Aside from the ‘Apps Studio’ and the release of the films through VODO, uTorrent 2.2 has several other features and enhancements in store. The skinning format which allows users to change the look of the client has been renewed, the client is now able to move files if you change the download location of a file, and there is now an add torrent dialog for magnet links.

On the privacy side there are also several much needed and demanded improvements. First of all, there was a huge security leak for the users of some proxy services. uTorrent users broadcasted their real IP-address instead of the secure one when they were connected to an UDP tracker (most proxy operators warned their users about this). This has now been fixed in the latest stable release. In addition, the latest release makes it easier for users of proxies to configure their client so they are indeed anonymous.

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uMap: Show Your uTorrent Peers in Google Maps

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Trance

uMap is a new App that allows uTorrent users to display all the peers they are connected to on Google Maps. While the App provides a good visualization of global BitTorrent swarms, it also demonstrates that anonymity is hard to find for the regular torrenter.

In order for BitTorrent to work, clients need IP-addresses of people who are sharing the same files. Aside from being linked to a customer account at an ISP, IP-addresses also provide data on the geographical location of its users.

Although not always 100% accurate, IP-addresses can be linked to the physical location of users, or at least to the city they’re in. Quite a few BitTorrent users are probably already aware of this since most BitTorrent clients list the countries fellow downloaders come from.

One of the latest additions to uTorrent’s App directory takes location awareness a step further. Named uMap, the application displays all your peers on a Google Map, with the option to zoom into the street level. With uMap you can literally check where your peers live.

The App has several ways to display the data. File-sharers can be viewed by the BitTorrent client they use, the country they come from or the swarm they’re currently participating in. uMap was added to the App directory and can now be installed in the latest Griffin release of uTorrent.

uMaps in action

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We’ve tried the App, and although it’s not really that useful, it is interesting to see the huge differences between various torrents and the sites one downloads from. On most public torrents uTorrent and Vuze were the dominant clients, but on a private tracker quite a few seedboxes showed up, some packed together near a big datacenter.

For some novice users uMap might be an eye-opener, since it shows that BitTorrent transfers are far from anonymous. Those who want to hide their real location from other BitTorrent users might want to consider renting a seedbox or signing up for an account at specialized privacy services such as BTGuard and TorrentPrivacy.

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BitTorrent Releases uTorrent SDK, Starts App Challenge

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Trance

BitTorrent Inc. released the SDK for uTorrent Apps today, allowing developers worldwide to code their own Apps for the popular BitTorrent client. To motivate developers into contributing their creations, the company has also announced a challenge with a $1000 prize for the best App to be submitted during the coming month.

Earlier this year BitTorrent Inc. launched uTorrent Apps, a web-based extensions framework to add new functionality to the popular BitTorrent client without compromising the lightness most users have come to love.

uTorrent App files have a .btapp suffix and consist entirely of HTML and Javascript. The Apps can be added to the client with a single click and are displayed using an embedded browser window.

Similar to other apps, addons and extensions in today’s web browsers and phones, uTorrent Apps will allow 3rd party developers to create applications that will integrate seamlessly with the client.

Initially only a handful of Apps were included with the experimental ‘Griffin‘ client. This project merged with the latest uTorrent 3.0 alpha release last week and today BitTorrent Inc. made an SDK available that developers can use to code their own Apps.

“Apps for uTorrent is something that we are really passionate about. For us, it is a natural and important evolution of uTorrent,” says Simon Morris, BitTorrent’s VP of Product Management. “It is a way for users to create a personalized experience by adding Apps that offer new features and services that are important to them – without compromising the lightness that they have come to love with uTorrent.”

“Another important component of Apps for uTorrent is the developer community. Apps that inspire new and innovative uses of uTorrent – built by developers – are an important part of our vision.”

To stimulate the development of uTorrent Apps, BitTorrent Inc. is also starting a developers challenge, awarding a $1000 prize to the best App to be submitted during the coming month. With the challenge they hope to encourage developers worldwide to create Apps that will highlight new use cases and redefine how uTorrent is being used.

The Apps bundled with the latest release of uTorrent 3.0 are far from groundbreaking, so it will be interesting to see what creative implementations other developers come up with.

Entries to the Apps developer challenge will be judged based on originality and innovation, quality of product, product or service appeal and technical expertise. The contest closes on Friday, August 13, 2010.