TorrentFreak

• enigmax
• June 8, 2009
• 41
• TorrentTwitter,
  twitter
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The micro-blogging service Twitter continues to increase in popularity but while it’s great to hear about what that B-grade celebrity had for breakfast or where your best friend woke up this morning, readers of TorrentFreak will probably prefer hearing about torrents. That’s where TorrentTwitter steps in.

In the unlikely event you’re unfamiliar with the basics of Twitter, here is a twenty second crash course. Twitter is a free micro blogging platform where users can send each other short messages. Known as ‘tweets’, these messages consist of no more than 140 characters and are sent to other Twitter users who previously subscribed to the sending user’s profile. These people are known as ‘followers’. The message will also be available for all to see on the web.

Now, clearly inspired by Twitter, comes a new micro-blogging service called TorrentTwitter. After the brief registration process (OpenID accepted), users can post short messages of maximum 140 characters. It’s possible to send any information you choose using the original Twitter and the same is possible on the TorrentTwitter service, but it seems to have been designed with the sharing of BitTorrent links in mind.

Most updates on this niche Twitter seem to contain the the location of .torrent files on the web via a short URL, along with related details. These messages are sent to the user’s followers via the web, instant message, RSS feeds or SMS, and also appear on the public timeline on the mainpage.

Of course, as a user of TorrentTwitter it’s also possible to follow other users of the service too. Maybe you know of someone who likes downloading the same kind of music as you – subscribe to his or her feed and get informed the second they share that information. Alternatively, with enough users TorrentTwitter will become a user generated meta-search engine for torrent files.

The other possibility for users on TorrentTwitter is the creation of a group to which other users can join. In a torrent context, a group can be focused on a particular subject, say the latest TV shows. Any member of that group could send an update of where to find the latest torrent for a particular show, and instantaneously everyone in the group is notified. Groups can be as specific or as diverse as the user chooses.

Right now since the site only launched on June 2nd, there are only a handful of groups listed, leaving plenty of scope and opportunity for those wishing to start a new group. Joining a group is easy, just click ‘join’ on the group’s page.

TorrentTwitter also has a cloud displaying the most popular tags on the site, along with most popular and featured TorrentTweets, if that’s the correct term. We’re expecting news from the site owner and we’ll update this post when that arrives.

In the unlikely event you’re unfamiliar with the basics of Twitter, here is a twenty second crash course. Twitter is a free micro blogging platform where users can send each...