iBit

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to find a torrent search engine that looks as good as it performs? Sure, there are plenty of torrent trackers out there that do a good enough job at hosting, locating, and presenting torrent files – but do they have to look so uninspired in the process? Why is it that torrent search engines and torrent trackers are so often poorly designed? Far too frequently, the sites look as if nobody put any effort into their aesthetic vision.

This results in plain, white backgrounds. Or very data heavy websites that offer no interactive, immersive, or user-friendly features whatsoever. Just basically grids and download links. Come on … I think that torrent search engine developers can do a better job than that, don’t you? I mean, I understand that the way a site looks may not be the most important aspect – if a torrent tracker is good enough and has an active enough community, I am willing to put up with a site that is a little less easy on the eyes – but it should be taken account to some degree, right?

For those of you who want the best of both worlds, allow me to introduce you to a public torrent tracker known as iBit. Not only is iBit one of the most effective and reliable P2P torrent communities on the web, it looks good while maintaining that reputation. It’s a site that I find myself actually wanting to return to, over and over again, due to its intuitive and interactive site design, professional look and feel, and easy to navigate layout.

Design

Okay, I believe we have hyped up the design of this site enough. Let’s dive in and see what specifically about it is so good. What unique features and design quirks are at work, setting iBit apart from other torrent trackers out there?

The Look – First thing’s first, I love the overall theme of iBit. I know that it is more a matter of personal taste than anything else, but I am much more drawn to sites that utilize a black background than those that rely on white or brighter colors. I just think it’s a bit easier on the eyes, personally. iBit has employed a very sleek black, gray, and red theme, with plenty of clean lines and a minimalist approach.

Everything about this site is highly stylized and immersive, too. When you click into a movie torrent’s info page, for instance, you will find that the background becomes a wallpaper of the movie’s poster (or another associated image). It’s the little things like this that really set iBit aside from a design standpoint.

On many torrent sites, the files are very alienated from the free indie content they contain. This is where you get the trope of the cold, sterile torrent tracker from. These sites are often more concerned with delivering downloadable files than they are the actual entertainment products therein. iBit, however, has married the two in a way that is enjoyable and good looking.

Home Page – When you first land on iBit’s home page, you will be greeted by a search bar and a few icons representing different genres. Either type in the keyword of what you’re looking for or start browsing by file type. The home page does what a home page should do – it acts as a portal to the entire website.

Inner Pages – Once you begin browsing the actual torrent files, the site only continues to become more impressive. My favorite part of the way that this site is designed, personally, is the fact that even the search results do not look sterile, like data. iBit has chosen to give the grid of the torrent files some color, making each file pop in a blue text. It is easy, too, to see whether a file is verified, how many comments a torrent has, how long ago it was posted, the file size, and the numbers of seeders and leechers.

Torrent Info Pages – This is where the design reaches its pinnacle of brilliance if you ask me. I love how each torrent page is custom-tailored to fit the content, and how each background changes with a given torrent. It gives this site a much more experiential and authentic feel.

Content and Features

 The design of iBit, however, is not the only impressive aspect of this site. In addition to offering a fun and well-designed site, iBit also has plenty of user features. Frankly, this site has just about everything I look for in a torrent tracker. They have left no stone unturned.

Verified Torrents – iBit offers some peace of mind for users who are turning to this torrent search engine for the first time. There is a great system in place here for verified torrents. That means that users can enjoy worries-free downloading, more or less. With torrent verification, any torrent that comes up as being verified is guaranteed to be safe. And safety is key when it comes to torrenting. If a torrent has been verified (signified by a green checkmark next to the file name, you have nothing to be concerned about – this means that the file has been reviewed and evaluated and has been found to contain no malware, corrupted files, or inaccuracies.

A Huge Archive of Torrents – With iBit, you won’t have to worry about not being able to find a certain free indie movie, free indie album, free indie TV show, free indie game, etc. If people know about it, chances are you will be able to find it on iBit, thanks to the site’s massive library of files (which is ever-growing, by the way).

Very Active Community of Peers – While browsing iBit for various files, I am happy to report that I was never at a loss when it comes to how many seeders files tend to have. The users on this site are clearly very serious about torrenting and, thus, go the extra mile to ensure fast and dependable downloads. Plus, almost every file appears to have comments on it, which means that you can expect a very courteous and sociable group of peers on this torrent tracker.

Tons of File Info – Going back to the info pages one more time, I am extremely impressed by how much info and additional media are included with these torrents. Not only does iBit enable you to download any file you could dream of, it also makes it easy to learn more about a given file before download.

This is especially useful, I have found, when it comes to torrenting free indie movies. Most files come complete with credit info, IMDb ratings and information, trailers, screenshots, even how much the film cost to make. iBit is more than just an average torrent tracker, it is also something of an encyclopedia of sorts. No more blind torrenting.

Mobile and Desktop Experience

Perhaps the only thing missing from iBit would be an app. However, most torrent trackers do not have apps. So, it would be surprising if this site did – never mind how awesome it would be.

That being said, the mobile site is just as effective as the desktop site. It is perfectly optimized for smartphones and tablets and makes the whole experience just as enjoyable no matter what device you prefer to torrent on. Plus, there are not any invasive or annoying ads – an all too common flaw with mobile torrent trackers.

Suggestions that I have for iBit

Personally, I would love to see iBit develop an app. Even though the mobile site is great, I think that the intuitive design of iBit would translate perfectly into an app format, and it would make downloading torrents from this site that much easier. Other than that, my only suggestion is very minor. There are no magnet links in the search results field. These can be very convenient, especially when trying to download files on the fly, to just be able to click the magnet icon without clicking into the torrent’s info page. Other than that, iBit is a great torrent tracker – one that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys P2P file sharing.