With these software releases, you’ll swear the RIAA & MPAA are behind them, in the hopes to aggravate BitTorrent users into raising a white flag of befuddlement. Who needs MediaSentry with software like this?
Worst Search Software: TorrentSeek .NET v1.0
They Say: “It will search within entire Internet for Torrent links and display them after vereifying [sic] the target link existence / URL clean-up…much faster than other extraction software.” — TorrentSeek Team.
We Say: You’ll find torrents with TorrentSeek, all right. Just not the ones you want. You’ve a better chance at finding what you seek by loading up the mininova page, closing your eyes and just clicking wildly. If there’s an award for ugliest BitTorrent software, this one wins in a landslide. These guys don’t know torrents from tortillas.
The Truth: With over 4,000 recent downloads from softpedia.com… well, that’s 4,000 less people to compete with for those private BitTorrent sites, we reckon. In a “search” for ‘There Will Be Blood’, results included Finger Eleven, King of the Hill and DJ Tiesto.
Runner-up: Movie Torrent v1.6.0 (adware-filled).
Worst Toolbar – Torrent Search Bar v4.5
Thank goodness for Torrent toolbars – without them, how would anyone find torrents? You’ll find more than torrents with this one – it should have been called the “Torrent/Weather/Google Search Bar”.
They Say: “Links to the best private torrents communities. We will always get you the best secret torrent sites.” — torrent-search-bar.com.
We Say: Ooh, secret torrent sites – sounds exciting! TSB includes some not-so-secretive Google ads, weather bars and other shameless advertising stuffed onto your browser.
The Truth: The torrent search page doesn’t work and showed zero search results. Isn’t that supposed to be the marquee feature of the Torrent Search Bar? Without that, all it really is, is a browser bookmark of outdated torrent sites and advertising. Brought to you by the same group that gave us eXeem (the pay-to-use BitTorrent service).
Runner-up: P2P Torrent Toolbar.
Worst BitTorrent Client – TorrenTopia
They Say: “Finally you will be able to search again. Powerful queue system: choose all you want to download and let it work by itself” — torrenTopia.com.
We Say: At last, someone’s come out with a BitTorrent client that does the work by itself!
The Truth: TorrenTopia had an innovative & creative idea – and came up with a BitTorrent client with an integrated .torrent search engine! The major flaw? – the search doesn’t work! We tried a search for ‘mp3’ on The PirateBay and it came back with no results. Worse still, the BitTorrent side of it contains all the features of a bowl of jello. Now if only the search worked, we might be able to overlook its other shortcomings.
Runners-up: Artemis v2.5.7 (Azureus rip-off with removed features), Hermes P2P BT (adware), and other malware supported BitTorrent clients such as Torrent101, BitRoll, TorrentQ and GetTorrent..
Honorable Mention – PKTorrents
We Say: PKTorrents incorporates a nasty Trojan within the release, free of charge. Not only must you worry about malware in the torrents; they put it right in the software.
They Say: “The ‘So Called – TROJAN’ reported in PKTv0.1(beta) Was NOT! I Repeat NOT put in there on purpose to attempt to hack or screw anyone over.” — PKT website rebuttal.
Well, that about does it for this list. Stayed tuned for more, and stay safe!
