WEB APPLICATION

One web application that revolutionizes the internet today is a simple little site called Torrentz. Torrents are files and programs that are uploaded by users onto a website where they are either seeded or leached. Seeding is keeping the downloaded program active for others to download. Leaching is downloading the file and not sharing it with other users. Basically, the more people who seed a file, the faster a file downloads for another user. Torrentz is not an illegal website even though it has a list of downloadable movie still in theatres, pc games complete with crack codes, TV series that haven’t even come out yet BECAUSE it acts as a search engine. You do not virtually download anything from their site, it gives you a list of other sites that have the file available for download—this is how they beat copyright laws.

The sites functionality is pretty straight forward. It has a search engine up top in order to search for the file your are looking for. There are also tabs at the top that allow you to pick your file category. For example, if you wanted to download a TV episode, you would click the TV tab and then search or scroll down and search a list of TV episodes. You can also do searches by keywords. At the top it has a list of the most popular keywords people use, and you can click those in order to narrow down your search even further. The site simply isn’t some small time site. It basically acts like a host site for these illegal downloads. Once you find a file that you like, it will give you a list of different websites to download it from. Torrentz acts as a directory for other websites that have the movie/TV/pc game/ music/video game. From there, you click the file you want (some websites that it directs you too charge users to download from them), it will redirect you to the other website, and then you download and voilà, you have the file. Of course you need to download a special torrent application for the torrent to download at the correct speed such a uTorrent. uTorrent serves as a program that runs on your computer that acts as another pathway for your file to download on.

The site is not set up to be complex. It has a simple white background, with orange highlights for the headers, and blue writing. The whole website is the same. It is very user friendly and easy to use. Its look makes it easy to use in that it is simple and straightforward. As said before, it has a search engine, category and keyword tabs, and even has different sections on the homepage, such as Latest Game Downloads or Latest Movie Downloads. It even has a help page which acts more as a disclaimer to protect the site, and warn people what will happen if they violate proper usage. This simple set up makes the site very easy to use. Finding a file on the internet and downloading the file is very easy thanks to the straightforward, simple design of Torrentz.com.

I cannot say that there is much social interaction on the Torrentz site directly. I know you can add comments to a directory of a file. This serves useful in the fact that some people upload bad files. For example, they upload Ocean’s Thirteen, rename it Max Payne, and tons of people download it. Other times you wait almost 10-12 hours for a file to download, only to find out that it has corrupt files and doesn’t work. This is where the comments come in handy. Users can help direct you to proper working files. You can write whatever you want about the files, and receive feedback from other users.

I find this site useful because I can download any files I want for free. There are thousands of torrent downloading sites, some much more sketchy than others. Torrentz allows me to find working big-name sites that I know I am not going to download a virus from or download a bad file. It is also useful and beneficial because I am saving money. Sure it is illegal to do, but I will take my chances, considering millions of other people are doing this too. I mean, who doesn’t want to save 11 bucks for a movie ticket, or 60 bucks for a new PS3 game (yes, you can download xbox and playstation games), or even spend 100 dollars on one season of a TV series when you can simply download it for free from other users. I think the site is interesting because it acts like a google.com almost. Sure you can find torrents on Google through their search engine, but Torrentz.com is simply just for torrents. You will not find an IMDB movie review if you search for the new movie Wanted with Angelina Jolie, you will only find a list of other websites that you can download the movie from. I find Torrentz.com a very useful and interactive website because it has a search engine to find files, has a special program to download files with, and is clever in the way that they only list other websites that have the movie, in order to protect themselves.

Torrents Search Engine. "Torrentz". 2003-2008. URL: http://www.torrentz.com/