Researchers at the Delft University of Technology and De Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam recently unveiled the latest version (4.0.1) of a BitTorrent client known as Tribler that combines the social aspects of online communities with the traditional components of the torrent app. The latest version incorporates Last.fm-style personalization to your torrent downloading recommending new media based on your previous downloads. Other features include a search tool to look for YouTube clips and watch them with an integrated video viewer.
"In the past, P2P was all about file-sharing and key word search," Johan Pouwelse, an assistant professor at Delft University. "We're working towards true content sharing, a system that gives you the sort of visual browsing you have on YouTube and the community feeling you have on FaceBook or MySpace."
While some might worry about a torrent client that tracks what they download and uses that information to make suggestions, Tribler has supposedly managed to merge online friends and a sense of community without using any central server, thus user's download history won't be stored in a central repository of data.
Tribler has caught the interest of a few European broadcasters, and according to Pouwelse, the client has been downloaded more than 130,000 times. Still, it faces the same copyright issues as other P2P programs out there. You can head on to our Downloads section to give Tribler a try.