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YouTorrent Interview
February 11, 2008
Just about any BitTorrent fan knows there are plenty of trackers to choose from. There are many indexing sites to pick through as well. Although The Pirate Bay, MiniNova, isoHunt, and countless others all manage the same BitTorrent protocol, each one has their specialties. What one might find on The Pirate Bay may not be tracked by MiniNova, and vice-versa. BitTorrent search engines like YouTorrent aim to consolidate the query process and streamline much of the investigative work behind finding that golden torrent.Patrick, the administrator of YouTorrent, talked to Slyck about his new BitTorrent project. YouTorrent has been making strides in the BitTorrent community since its launch early last month, as the community was largely impressed with its clean GUI and real time search engine. And according to Patrick, this is just the beginning.
Slyck: Tell us a bit about YouTorrent, the people behind it, and your motivation for creating it?
YouTorrent: YouTorrent was initially created out off personal interest. I noticed a growing pattern amongst friends where they would hop between torrent sites looking for their favorite files. It reminded me of how search engines were in 90s before Google came along. This nostalgic moment led me to the realization that the BitTorrent climate is still very much in its infancy - the market is yet to be consolidated and there is still opportunity in the market place. The concept behind YouTorrent took a week to build. The name was acquired and before the site was finished it was picked up by TorrentFreak and front page on Digg. It just goes to show that when the factors and timing are right, you don’t find success, success finds you.
Slyck: There are many multi-index BitTorrent search engines available to the end user. What makes YouTorrent unique? What is YouTorrent bringing to the table?
Most multi-index BitTorrent search engines index torrents like a spider, comparing and summing all seeds + peers based on hashes and allow tracker specific searches. To me this seemed too involved, and nobody had broached the idea of displaying the information that people would find on each specific site separately in one user-friendly interface. Furthermore, YouTorrent is a clean site, ad-free, and most importantly is the only site (apart from ScrapeTorrent) that searches multiple sites in real-time.
Slyck: Since YouTorrent’s launch, its popularity has become impressive. With popularity comes the attention of the entertainment industry. What precautions have been taken to ensure the longevity of YouTorrent? Does the fate of many other torrent sites concern you?
YouTorrent: I believe that the site carries itself professionally and legitimately. Unlike other torrents sites, we allow users to search multiple search engines and send them to 3rd party pages. This is most similar in behavior to Google. Other torrent sites link directly to torrent files. Since even there is no case precedence in even linking torrents files directly, I find it difficult to see how linking to 3rd party websites poses any legal problem. Furthermore, many of our engines claim to have approved and verified legitimate material, such as Vuze.com, BitTorrent.com and LegitTorrents.info.
Slyck: The centerpiece of any good file-sharing entity is a solid community. Does the future of YouTorrent include this attribute?
YouTorrent: Possibly. Community also creates site value, but YouTorrent is a light search engine and going deep into community is often what gets sites in trouble. With communities comes maintenance, and don’t you think we have enough communities to be a part of already? J
Slyck: There several features that some YouTorrent users have expressed would be useful. These include modular BitTorrent sites (in other words adding and removing sites), and the ability to identify the quality of the torrent. Are these features a possibility? We're also wondering if there will be a way to comment on actual torrents returned in search queries to help identify fakes, etc?
YouTorrent: Customization of engines has now been released (this can be found by clicking on “preferences” on the search page). Many more engines are to follow, including (hopefully) an experimental Google search. I am still sitting on the fence as far as commenting goes. Most of the engines have their own commenting system, I am not sure this is really necessary for us, but I am still not sure. We will be implementing hash grouping at some stage. Fakes are indeed a problem, but hopefully this will become less of a problem over time once we implement new features.
Slyck: Tell us a bit about the programming, research, and development that went into YouTorrent.
YouTorrent: I have a lot of experience with web projects both large and small, so in short my experience was my research. The site was built out of a combination of HTML, CSS, JavaScript (including the MooTools framework), PHP, XSSI and text files. No MySQL databases are used. I don’t like the speed and complication of databases for such projects. Projects can very easily be over complicated; I don’t feel YouTorrent needs that kind of complication at this time. As a result, the site is running still on one server!
Slyck: Talk to us about the future of BitTorrent. What concerns and hopes do you have, and where do you see the protocol in 1 year? Three years?
YouTorrent: My concerns are that the various sites that have plastered dating/adult related advertising over them have significantly damaged the credibility of such an amazing transfer protocol. Sites like Mininova and Vuze could be considered ambassadors of BitTorrent and show how things should be done the right way. I don’t see the protocol changing very much as its pretty optimal as it is. Maybe streaming will become more involved. It is possible however that there are a lot changes in the legal climate over the next three years.
Slyck: What role will YouTorrent have in the years to come? How adaptable is your philosophy towards industry content being sold on BitTorrent websites (i.e., BitTorrent.com)?
YouTorrent: I believe that YouTorrent will demonstrate to consumers and to companies the right way to manage BitTorrent and how to treat users. The target audience of torrent users is the ideal age and demograph for business to commercially exploit. At some point, gaining access to those users will be valuable. We will not for one second consider selling out our users, but we hope that there is some way we can set precedence for how business is done with BitTorrent.
Slyck: Copyright enforcement is a contentious issue. Will YouTorrent respect takedown notices sent by rights holders?
YouTorrent: Yes. Although legally as we are not in control of the web content of the 3rd party site engines to which we link on search results, just as Google respects DMCA actions and take-downs with Google and YouTube, we will adhere to the same policy in most cases.
Slyck: What is your philosophy on copyrights and intellectual property in the digital age?
YouTorrent: I am pleased that MP3s are finally being sold through various vendors and I am pleased with initiatives such as Hulu and Vuze, it shows that the movie industry is less averse to change than the music industry. We live in a difficult time with respect to copyright. Bureaucracy falls far behind technological innovation, and as a result many people have lost respect for copyright. I am sure this issue has been argued to death. In short, I see both sides of the coin, as I am sure most people do too.
Slyck: What features can BitTorrent users look forward to from YouTorrent? What are your ambitions?
YouTorrent: Many more engines, more advanced features, faster searches, static searches and more. Our ambitions are to become one of the most visited and trusted websites on the Internet in the next 2 years. We are already within the top 800 websites in Spain, and I believe this will happen because I know what features are around the corner, and I know they will be well received. We also hope to start offering premium content through iTunes and Amazon at some point in the future.
YouTorrent: I believe that the site carries itself professionally and legitimately. Unlike other torrents sites, we allow users to search multiple search engines and send them to 3rd party pages. This is most similar in behavior to Google. Other torrent sites link directly to torrent files. Since even there is no case precedence in even linking torrents files directly, I find it difficult to see how linking to 3rd party websites poses any legal problem. Furthermore, many of our engines claim to have approved and verified legitimate material, such as Vuze.com, BitTorrent.com and LegitTorrents.info.
Slyck: The centerpiece of any good file-sharing entity is a solid community. Does the future of YouTorrent include this attribute?
YouTorrent: Possibly. Community also creates site value, but YouTorrent is a light search engine and going deep into community is often what gets sites in trouble. With communities comes maintenance, and don’t you think we have enough communities to be a part of already? J
Slyck: There several features that some YouTorrent users have expressed would be useful. These include modular BitTorrent sites (in other words adding and removing sites), and the ability to identify the quality of the torrent. Are these features a possibility? We're also wondering if there will be a way to comment on actual torrents returned in search queries to help identify fakes, etc?
YouTorrent: Customization of engines has now been released (this can be found by clicking on “preferences” on the search page). Many more engines are to follow, including (hopefully) an experimental Google search. I am still sitting on the fence as far as commenting goes. Most of the engines have their own commenting system, I am not sure this is really necessary for us, but I am still not sure. We will be implementing hash grouping at some stage. Fakes are indeed a problem, but hopefully this will become less of a problem over time once we implement new features.
Slyck: Tell us a bit about the programming, research, and development that went into YouTorrent.
YouTorrent: I have a lot of experience with web projects both large and small, so in short my experience was my research. The site was built out of a combination of HTML, CSS, JavaScript (including the MooTools framework), PHP, XSSI and text files. No MySQL databases are used. I don’t like the speed and complication of databases for such projects. Projects can very easily be over complicated; I don’t feel YouTorrent needs that kind of complication at this time. As a result, the site is running still on one server!
Slyck: Talk to us about the future of BitTorrent. What concerns and hopes do you have, and where do you see the protocol in 1 year? Three years?
YouTorrent: My concerns are that the various sites that have plastered dating/adult related advertising over them have significantly damaged the credibility of such an amazing transfer protocol. Sites like Mininova and Vuze could be considered ambassadors of BitTorrent and show how things should be done the right way. I don’t see the protocol changing very much as its pretty optimal as it is. Maybe streaming will become more involved. It is possible however that there are a lot changes in the legal climate over the next three years.
Slyck: What role will YouTorrent have in the years to come? How adaptable is your philosophy towards industry content being sold on BitTorrent websites (i.e., BitTorrent.com)?
YouTorrent: I believe that YouTorrent will demonstrate to consumers and to companies the right way to manage BitTorrent and how to treat users. The target audience of torrent users is the ideal age and demograph for business to commercially exploit. At some point, gaining access to those users will be valuable. We will not for one second consider selling out our users, but we hope that there is some way we can set precedence for how business is done with BitTorrent.
Slyck: Copyright enforcement is a contentious issue. Will YouTorrent respect takedown notices sent by rights holders?
YouTorrent: Yes. Although legally as we are not in control of the web content of the 3rd party site engines to which we link on search results, just as Google respects DMCA actions and take-downs with Google and YouTube, we will adhere to the same policy in most cases.
Slyck: What is your philosophy on copyrights and intellectual property in the digital age?
YouTorrent: I am pleased that MP3s are finally being sold through various vendors and I am pleased with initiatives such as Hulu and Vuze, it shows that the movie industry is less averse to change than the music industry. We live in a difficult time with respect to copyright. Bureaucracy falls far behind technological innovation, and as a result many people have lost respect for copyright. I am sure this issue has been argued to death. In short, I see both sides of the coin, as I am sure most people do too.
Slyck: What features can BitTorrent users look forward to from YouTorrent? What are your ambitions?
YouTorrent: Many more engines, more advanced features, faster searches, static searches and more. Our ambitions are to become one of the most visited and trusted websites on the Internet in the next 2 years. We are already within the top 800 websites in Spain, and I believe this will happen because I know what features are around the corner, and I know they will be well received. We also hope to start offering premium content through iTunes and Amazon at some point in the future.
This story is filed in these Slyck News categories
File-Sharing/P2P Related :: Interviews
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