BitLet Bookmarklet: Directly Download Torrents in your Browser

Written by Ernesto on October 15, 2007 

BitLet, the web-based BitTorrent client recently added a bookmarklet. This new feature makes it possible to download .torrent files in your browser, without navigating away from the torrent site. The bookmarklet works on The Pirate Bay, mininova, Demonoid and all other sites that use the .torrent extension.

BitLet is a very neat web-based Java applet that allows you to download .torrent files on a computer that doesn’t have a BitTorrent client installed. Not really something for the more advanced BitTorrent users, but helpful if you want to share a torrent with your less tech-savvy friends.

Some BitTorrent sites, Suprnova and Fenopy for example, already list Bitlet download links on their site. bitletHowever, for all the other sites the bookmarklet comes in handy. It saves you some time because you don’t have to go to the BitLet homepage and enter the .torrent link manually.

For those who are not familiar with bookmarklets, it works really simple. Add the bookmarklet – listed over here – to your toolbar or favorites. Visit your favorite BitTorrent site, and when you find a torrent you want to download on your, simply click on the bookmarklet and a “download with Bitlet” link will show up.

Thanks to BitLet I’ve shared files with people who never heard of BitTorrent. It requires no configuration – although you can change the port and upload speed – and the speeds are comparable to most other BitTorrent clients. Most importantly perhaps, it brings BitTorrent distribution another step closer to the complete novice.

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20 Responses

1 Oct 16, 2007 at 00:39 by Joes

Sadly it don’t works with http://www.torrents.to multiple search.

2 Oct 16, 2007 at 01:22 by Randy Fithian

Or Get Opera.

3 Oct 16, 2007 at 01:25 by Ghoomba

Randy, you beat me to it.. yeah, why bother with all this extra bloat when you can just get Opera, even has irc chat built in.

4 Oct 16, 2007 at 01:42 by An0num0s

hmm seems like you guys aren’t getting the point that this technology is more for the unexperienced user. as for using opera.. I cant stand that browser. Too many bugs and issues with compatibility on “some” pages.
As for this… I have yet to try it and yes their are a lot of sites that still aren’t compatible with this agent but it is a good step in the right direction until people become more computer friendly.

5 Oct 16, 2007 at 02:53 by Scott

Have people had luck actually using BitLet? I’ve heard it downloads way slower than standalone clients and that the UI becomes unresponsive after awhile. Can anyone confirm or deny that this is an issue?

I love the idea, but if a lot of people have problems with it, I can’t really recommend it.

6 Oct 16, 2007 at 05:06 by herman_m

Once web seeding is supported, NAT traversal, and use a flash interface over a scary Java applet, this could be a killer way to distribute small or big files.

7 Oct 16, 2007 at 06:10 by j

o.k.

8 Oct 16, 2007 at 07:10 by iisonly

If you use GreaseMonkey – you can also use my script

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/11385

I think that is mentioned on Bitlet bookmarklet page also:D

Great job Daniele!

9 Oct 16, 2007 at 07:21 by hula chic

how can that work on http://torrent-finder.com ?

10 Oct 16, 2007 at 07:47 by Dave

I use the same like iisonly. I’ve installed Greasemonkey (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748) for the FireFox Browser (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/) with the BitLet/TorrentCheck Script (http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/11385).

Greasemonkey rulez – you can customize all webpages the way you like. ;)

11 Oct 16, 2007 at 09:42 by Steve

For http://www.torrents.to you may open a new tab for the in-frame search results. But that’s not the way it comes more comfortable. Using the GreaseMonkey script is the best solution I think.

12 Oct 16, 2007 at 11:48 by jMan

Yeah – using the GScript too ‘n works much better than the bookmarklet. Just give it a try.

13 Oct 16, 2007 at 12:52 by btbtbt

Torrents in opera is slow and ineffective. When i used opera for torrents i got used to have 3kb/s down…

14 Oct 16, 2007 at 17:51 by bobo

I don’t see the point of this. All browsers can download torrents by left clicking on the link, and if you have a BT client installed you are given the immediate option to “open with” the client. Installing a client is a no brainer, most detect and configure a port automatically, there’s no “tech savvy” needed. So why do you need another “bookmarklet” (never found one yet that was actually useful) to do this?

15 Oct 16, 2007 at 19:05 by Dave

@bobo

Ever tried to install Software as “User” in a school or at other public places? Ever had a noop which is even to dump to Install a client? Giving an webmaster the ability to offer an download to a visitor without forcing installation of 3rd party sw is priceless!

16 Oct 17, 2007 at 02:34 by h33t

webbrowser plugins for bittorrent downloads are GREAT

17 Oct 18, 2007 at 09:00 by belisarius

opera has had this functionality for a while built in… but i guess no one much cares about a browser with less than 1% market share.

18 Oct 18, 2007 at 09:07 by jakew

All this will bring is more leechers, as noobs will just download the file and then quit the browser.

19 Oct 18, 2007 at 10:54 by Retar

Ok I’ve tried like 4 times to upload with this stupid thing. I have my ports forwarded, what the hell else do I need to do?

20 Mar 19, 2008 at 10:04 by Nikolet

Nice site!

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