Thread: uTorrent Is Going to Make Money With a Toolbar

New users of uTorrent may shortly have the option of something extra with their BitTorrent client. In a move to try and generate extra revenue, some of the of new installs will have the option to include the Ask.com browser toolbar in addition to the most popular torrent client in use today.





The current economic situation is affecting everyone, and high technology companies are no exception. We’ve previously reported how BitTorrent Inc. had made layoffs and closed their Torrent Entertainment Network in recent months, in an attempt to cut costs and stay in business.

This February, the company went on to Google powered torrent search to the uTorrent website to make a few extra bucks, and they’re still looking for additional sources of revenue. This is where Ask.com comes in with their browser toolbar that is used to monetize other P2P clients as well.

Simon Morris, Vice President of product management at BitTorrent Inc. said that the toolbar will be included in new downloads of uTorrent 1.8.2. He assured people that it would be optional though, and that the executable will not have any size increase beyond the download option page. Also, we were told that those doing an upgrade will not be prompted about the bar.

Of course, this new ‘feature’ will fuel speculation by some that it carries on with the ‘MPAA spying’ which some have accused BitTorrent of doing since it bought the uTorrent client, and leads a small groups of people to continue using old versions. To date, we’ve yet to observe any ‘callhomes’ or similar that match any of those accusations.

Simon addressed these concerns telling TorrentFreak: “We are NOT on a path to do anything evil with the user community to make a quick profit. I know you only have our word on this, but it’s not hard to see that we have no chance of achieving our objectives if we alienate the very people on who the popularity of our software depends.”

While browser toolbars have sometimes gained a reputation as being a malware vector, this is usually due to 3rd party advertising. The toolbars generally make money though the search traffic that is generated by its users, and that is also the reason why most torrents sites - The Pirate Bay and Mininova included - now offer their own toolbars.

What BitTorrent inc. is aiming for is simply an extra influx of cash. What it is not looking to do is annoy their users, a point Simon is firm on. “To be very clear - uTorrent is very popular free BitTorrent software - the only thing we hope to change here is to make it even more popular. We hope the community will continue to support us in our efforts,” he told TorrentFreak.

If clients are to continue to develop, then with a growing shortage of venture capital there needs to be other ways to generate income. If the addition of one simple installer option about a browser toolbar means that uTP can be funded to completion (obsoleting many traditional throttling methods) is that really such a bad thing?

Source: uTorrent Ask.com Toolbar

That's the same thing Azureus/Vuse did!

This doesn't bother me at all.I would rather see people on our side making money instead of the greedy big businesses getting it all.I'm sure some of the profits from the toolbar will go into product development which will benefit us all.

Doesn't bother me, good for them tbh.

This kind of bothers me - depending on how it is handled. Because it was for that reason I switched from Azureus (Vuze) to uTorrent. Hopefully though this toolbar truly will be optional and minimal - unlike Vuze's awful advertisements that literally would hog down my computer to the point my torrents would freeze.

go ahead and make it.. no body is going to use it.

Agreed. I have utorrent installed and just chose not to use the Ask bar. Is it me or is the ask bar bundled with quite a few programs now?

Originally Posted by jb123

Agreed. I have utorrent installed and just chose not to use the Ask bar. Is it me or is the ask bar bundled with quite a few programs now?

Yes I have noticed it in a few other programs and if you don't read before you click you'll end up with it for sure, so it pays to slow down on the clicking when doing a install and do some reading.

BTW .... Ask Toolbar (at least the one that comes in Nero installation) is detected as malicious code for a good number of security programs .....