Home About Archives Categories News Bits Contact
The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide
Subscribe via RSS Subscribe via Email Tip Us Off!
Texas Child-Beating P2P-Hating Judge Reinstated
About a year ago, many will remember that we featured a
story about a Texas Judge....
Canadians Better Protected From Copywrath Starting
Today
As noted by Prof. Geist ealier today, the consumer-related
aspects of Canadas C-11 copyright bill come...
Most SOPA/PIPA Supporters Survive The Election
As most of the English-speaking world is aware, yesterday
the Us went to vote. Along with...
Virgin Media Unblocks The Pirate Bay (By Mistake)
In April UK High Court ordered that several of the countrys
leading ISPs must censor The...
Demonoid Still Down After Three Months
Today its been three months since Demonoid was driven
offline by a massive DDoS attack at...
NewsBitsEven more news...
MostDiscussedBelow are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past
month. Join the discussion if you like.
Search TorrentFreak
Ernesto
November
11, 2012
93
utorrent
Print
uTorrent Is Now Ad-Supported (and How to Disable)
This week uTorrent 3.2.2 was released to the public and one of the
release highlights are the new advertisements present in the client.
BitTorrent Inc. hopes that these ads will bring in extra revenue so the
company can continue to invest in the future of distributed technology.
When the advertising initiative was first announced no opt-out was
offered, but thanks to user feedback there now is an advanced feature
to disable the ads.
When BitTorrent Inc. announced its plan to
make uTorrent ad supported there was a
small user revolt.
The people complaining were mostly annoyed that there
would be no option to disable the ads. Luckily, BitTorrent
listened to the feedback and quickly decided that users would
indeed get a chance to opt-out.
After BitTorrent Inc. tested the new platform for a while, this week the offer platform
was officially announced in the release highlights of uTorrent 3.2.2.
As can be seen below, the ads come in the form of sponsored torrents through which
advertisers can reach uTorrents worldwide active user base of 125 million. The ads are
prominently featured in a yellow bar that sits on top of the torrent list.
uTorrent ad for Facebook Lite
BitTorrent Inc. tells TorrentFreak that they will continue to closely monitor feedback from
the community. Thus far users have been largely accepting of the new ads, they say.
Were very mindful of that feedback and of our core values as a company, and as such
weve been adamant that we maintain the same levels of privacy as always and that we
do not interrupt the user experience with our ads, BitTorrents Matt Mason says.
In online conversations and live walk-throughs, users are largely accepting and in many
cases interested in the offers we put forward, which include artist content and our own
new technologies, betas and product news.
A direct outcome of user feedback is the decision to allow uTorrent users to opt-out from
the advertisements. Understandably the feature isnt being promoted widely, but users
who go to Options > Preferences > Advanced will see the following entry:
sponsored_torrent_offer_enabled.
When this value is set to false the yellow advertisement bar will disappear the next time
uTorrent is started. The opt-out feature isnt mentioned in the uTorrent help file yet, but
the unofficial and updated version maintained by Rafi lists it (see N for more).
Disabling uTorrent ads
Me.ga Hackers: Were Real Pirates
& Well Sell Dotcoms Domain To
Universal
354
BitTorrent Pirate
Ordered to Pay $1.5
Million Damages For
Sharing 10 Movies
246
Six-Strikes
May Target Private
Trackers
237
Demonoid Is
Tracker is Now
Online
194
Page 1 of 16uTorrent Is Now Ad-Supported (and How to Disable) | TorrentFreak
12/11/2012http://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-is-now-ad-supported-and-how-to-disable-121111/
Related Posts
uTorrent Listens To Reddit After Backlash Over Toolbar Installer
Top 5 uTorrent Tips From BitTorrent Inc.
uTorrent Increases Privacy and Counters Mass-Monitoring of Downloads
uTorrent Debuts Native Android Client
Top 10 uTorrent Alternatives
Previous Post
0Like 32
For BitTorrent Inc. the advertisements are part of a series of new test cases designed to
bring in additional revenue to support the development and innovation of file-sharing
software. However, the company says that its not blindly accepting all advertisers.
Since the announcement in August the company has received many inquiries from
prospective partners, but the company is very choosy.
Our approach has been to selectively work with partners who understand that BitTorrent
users are among the most sophisticated online, and thus have a high bar when it comes
to engaging with advertising, Mason tells TorrentFreak.
We believe that delivering a quality advertising experience that resonates with a highly
influential, tech-savvy audience requires careful diligence, and have had to turn away
some of the demand at this time.
BitTorrent say that their initial partners are very positive about the new advertisement
possibilities, and that many users are clicking on the torrent offers. At the moment
BitTorrent is also experimenting with other types of advertising in addition to sponsored
downloads.
In terms of performance, its still early in our experimentation, but weve seen strong
sustained download rates for partner offers. We are also experimenting with taking users
to partner websites to see how that experience compares, Mason says.
It is no surprise that BitTorrent Inc. is looking for alternative means to increase revenue.
The company employs around 100 employees and is backed by venture capitalists who
eventually want to see a return on their investments.
BitTorrents current annual revenue is estimated at somewhere between $15 and $20
million and with the new in-client advertising this can grow further still.
Showing 93 comments
Why Offline
Privacy Values
Must Live On In
The Digital Age
Page 2 of 16uTorrent Is Now Ad-Supported (and How to Disable) | TorrentFreak
12/11/2012http://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-is-now-ad-supported-and-how-to-disable-121111/
If this means we can now get a secure uT v2.2.1 then I'm all for it!!!
I'll click on as many fecken ads as they want, just so long as I can continue using my
beloved 2.2.1.
I also applaud their option to disable the ads coz they do get annoying after a while and
folks woll just move to ad-free clients instead.
15peopleliked this. Like
I use 2.2.1 build 25110. AdBlock for every other annoying thing on the web
8peopleliked this. Like
Adblock? I just use this.
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/ho...
Why add bloat?
6peopleliked this. Like
I forgot to add, this hosts file method also blocks ads outside the browser, unlike adblock.
3peopleliked this. Like
This is friggin awesome! :D Thanks. Is there an easy way to keep the list updated all the
time?
1personliked this. Like
@Thedude321 I use http://someonewhocares.org/hos... and I just go in every 3 months or
so (when I remember, heh) and copy it in. Works beautifully. The one I use is a little
overzealous and breaks some things people might use, so keep that in mind.
1personliked this. Like
Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me like what you are talking about using requires
a DNS machine. Very few people have a DNS machine, hell most people don't even know
how to make a DNS machine.
Like
@Derp nope! Most computers (windows, linux, and mac) have some form of a hosts file,
though they're formatted differently. It's stored locally on your harddrive.
When you put these entries in, it does ACT like a dns server, correct.
When your browser requests, say, adtracking.domain.com, your computer first looks in
your hosts file, then other dns servers, to determine where it is. If your hosts file says
"adtracking.domain.com is at 127.0.0.1" (aka localhost) your computer will not even touch
the internet looking for that domain name, and your request to their servers will error out
on your own computer. They will never see your traffic.
Sort by Oldest first Subscribe by email Subscribe by RSS
Rob8urcakesRob8urcakesRob8urcakesRob8urcakes 1 day ago
Reply
Reply
Reply
Page 3 of 16uTorrent Is Now Ad-Supported (and How to Disable) | TorrentFreak
12/11/2012http://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-is-now-ad-supported-and-how-to-disable-121111/
Neat, huh?
9peopleliked this. Like
@Jacob Taylor is right.
hosts file -> browser dns cache -> web dns
I wouldn't advise putting too much in the hosts file. It will slow initial connections down.
Evey time you need an IP address resolved, it will scan through your hosts file first. If you
have hundreds on entries that will severely slow you down.
If you think about average web pages, they have more than twenty different urls for the
page. (twit
