Torrentz

Torrentz
Torrentz website and screenshot for a selected torrent.
Type of site
 Torrent meta-search engine
Available in English
Dissolved August 5, 2016 (2016-08-05)
Created by Flippy (alias)
Website torrentz.eu
(.com until April 2011)
Alexa rank Increase 186 (July 2016)[1]
Commercial No
Registration Optional
Launched 15 July 2003 (2003-07-15)[2]
Current status Closed

Torrentz was a Finland-based metasearch engine for BitTorrent, run by an individual known as Flippy.[3] It indexed torrents from various major torrent websites, and offered compilations of various trackers per torrent that were not necessarily present in the default .torrent file, so that when a tracker was down, other trackers could do the work. It was the second most popular torrent website in 2012.[4]

Usage

Torrentz's user interface was simple; it had only a user menu and a search panel. Users were not required to register before searching files.

To perform a search, users would simply type in a string of keywords within the autocomplete-enabled search field and execute the search by either pressing the search button in the UI or the enter key on the keyboard. From there, a list of matching torrent files were displayed on the screen for the user to choose from. This list could be filtered by age (one day, three days, one week or one month) and by "safety & quality" ("any", "good" or "verified"). The "good" filter was applied by default, and "verified" was reserved for torrents uploaded by well-known groups.[5]

Selecting a torrent from the search results list would take the user to another page listing the websites currently hosting the specified torrent (with which users would download files). As Torrentz used meta-search engines, users would be redirected to other torrent sites to download content (commonly KickassTorrents, which was considered safe to use).

History

In November 2008, scammers using fake papers attempted to take over the torrentz.com domain. As a backup, the site administrator set up the domain torrentz.eu.[6] After December 18, 2010, torrentz.eu became the site's default domain, due to the domain name seizures carried out by US authorities on various torrent websites.[7]

In 2013, Paramount Pictures sent a DMCA claim to Google to remove the Torrentz homepage and two other pages from its search engine. Torrentz counter-claimed on this request, claiming that the links did not infringe any copyright policies.[8]

On 26 May 2014, Torrentz had its domain name suspended without a court order[9][10] following a request from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit. A day later, the suspension of torrentz.eu was lifted. The website had three alternative domains (.me, .ch and .in) and hoped to move the .eu domain to a new registrar. All of these domains have since been blocked within the UK by Sky.[11][12]

On August 5, 2016, Torrentz was shut down by its operators with the message "Torrentz will always love you. Farewell." displayed; it operated for over 13 years.[13]

Clones

In August 2016, a few days after Torrentz shut down, an unofficial clone of Torrentz - Torrentz2.eu - was launched that initially indexed 60 million torrents.[14] Later that month, another unofficial clone - torrentzeu.to - was launched that initially indexed 30 million torrents.[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Torrentz.eu Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-12-31.
  2. ↑ "Torrentz WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
  3. ↑ "torrentz.eu – Torrent Search Engine". 2011-04-16.
  4. ↑ "Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2012". Torrentfreak.com. 2012-01-07. Retrieved 2012-11-02.
  5. ↑ Ernesto (29 January 2008). "Torrentz Introduces Verified Torrents and More New Features". TorrentFreak.
  6. ↑ "Torrentz Faces Hostile Domain Takeover". Torrentfreak.com. 2008-11-05. Retrieved 2011-04-16.
  7. ↑ "Torrentz dumps .com". Torrentfreak.com. 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2011-04-16.
  8. ↑ "Paramount Censors Torrentz's Torrentless Homepage from Google". TorrentFreak. 15 March 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "Registrars Can't Hold 'Pirate' Domains Hostage Without Court Order". TorrentFreak. 10 January 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "Whatever Happened to "Due Process" ?". easyDNS. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Torrentz.eu Domain suspended after UK Police request". TorrentFreak. 26 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  12. ↑ "Torrentz.eu Domain Unsuspended and Back In Action". TorrentFreak. 27 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell". TorrentFreak August 5, 2016
  14. ↑ Torrentz2.eu clone rises to take place of earlier website August 10, 2016
  15. ↑ New Torrentz Clone Appears: Alternative Mirror Site Includes Pirate Bay And Extratorrent Searches Tech Times

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