Can you make BitTorrent easy enough for my mom to use?
Could you make a BitTorrent plugin for a web page so BitTorrent “runs” right inside the web page?
So my mom doesn’t have to download and install a BitTorrent client and deal with .torrent files? So I can tell her, “Go to this page and press yes and the file will start downloading.”
Can the plugin be created with Java, JavaScript, Flash, Firefox plugins, … ?
Is there a problem with port blocking? Is there a way around that?
Thundercats, ho!
Update: Opera will have BitTorrent built in.
It’s one thing to recognize the value of HTTP before there are any easy-to-use clients; it’s another thing entirely to say, “let’s develop the first web browser, which happens to be easy enough for my mom.” BitTorrent, like HTTP, is just a protocol.
There are a ton of more specialized uses for BitTorrent than connecting to arbitrary trackers to download arbitrary bits. I suspect one of those uses is eventually going to be packaged in a way that’s easy enough for your mom. I think specialization is the vector to watch, not a wholesale re-imagining of the first, most abstract BitTorrent implementation.
And yes, the necessity of punching holes in network-address-translating routers is a major impediment.
It exists.
It’s called Blogtorrent