YourBitTorrent

Introduction

Anyone who has ever heard of torrenting before has probably heard of the world’s most popular (and most widely used) torrent client. Yes, that’s right … I am talking about none other than BitTorrent. To some, this torrent client is synonymous with torrenting itself. This is for a few reasons. Firstly, BitTorrent was one of the first torrent clients to offer freeware that enabled people to suddenly download tons and tons of free indie music, free indie movies, free indie games, free indie TV shows, and open-source software in the wake of Napster’s demise.

Secondly, BitTorrent is (and always has been) effective and dependable. So long as a torrent has enough seeds to execute a download, I have never run into any issues of functionality when using BitTorrent. It is fast, easy to use, and simple. Click the torrent’s magnet link on your torrent search engine of choice, and, voila, BitTorrent will do the rest – automatically downloading and seeding torrents with little to no effort required on the part of the user.

There are several other torrent clients out there these days that work just as well (or better, depending on who you ask) than BitTorrent today. But one thing remains true, regardless of which torrent client rises up to be number one in the years to come … no torrent client will ever have the legacy that BitTorrent has cultivated over the years. There may never be a torrent client that makes as big of a splash as BitTorrent has.

But today we are not discussing torrent clients in depth. If you want thorough and comprehensive reviews of torrent clients, feel free to meander over to the torrent clients section of TorrentSites, where you will be able to find reviews of all of the best torrent clients on the market. No, today we are to discuss torrent search engines … namely, the torrent search engine that borrows BitTorrent’s iconic legacy in its name: Your BitTorrent.

Let this be yet another testament to BitTorrent’s status in the torrenting community. It is such a popular software that torrent search engines have opted to include it in their title, in hopes of luring in new downloaders based on BitTorrent’s clout. And, frankly, for Your BitTorrent, I think this works. I mean, this is what prompted me to check this site out in the first place. Granted, there was a little bit of trickery involved. I only clicked the link initially because I assumed that this site was affiliated somehow with BitTorrent. Spoiler alert: it is not. But that does not mean that it is not an effective torrent search engine for just about any file type that you could be looking for.

If you are looking for some particularly hard-to-find or more obscure free indie titles – say, for instance, a free indie video game from your youth that you have not been able to find on the larger sites, or a little known free French indie film or something – you might be better off using these smaller, more exclusive, boutique torrent search engines. This is because they are tight knit communities of people who are serious both about file sharing and whatever medium a given site caters to. In other words, a small free indie movie-specific torrent site, for instance, might be more likely to help you find that obscure free French indie film that you can’t find anywhere else. The community is comprised, after all, of other serious free indie film buffs like you.

These sites, however, are not without their shortcomings. As I mentioned, the communities tend to be very small. This enables more secure (and sometimes more effective) downloading, sure, but it also means that the number of peers, naturally, will be smaller; often resulting in lower seed counts. Also, these boutique search engine sites are often invite-only. That means, of course, that accessibility will be an issue. If you do not personally know somebody who uses a site like this, then there is a slim chance that you will even be able to see the files that the site has available.

Bigger sites like Your BitTorrent may not have the more esoteric files, but they are perfect for someone who is more of a casual file sharer. Maybe you just like to torrent a mainstream album or a movie every once in a while. These sites should give you no problems. They do pose problems of their own, but so long as a site offers verified torrents and enough community features, they can be very powerful for those of us with more eclectic tastes. 

History

Your BitTorrent was founded in 2003 as My BitTorrent. The new site was the result of a split in ownership, which occurred in 2009.

Design 

The design of Your BitTorrent is, I guess, nothing to write home about. It is not particularly awful; it is not particularly great. At its best, it is sleek and utilitarian; at its worst it is cluttered and plain. My biggest gripe with the site’s design, though, is the fact that it does not offer magnet links. Instead, you have to click into a torrent’s info page in order to begin a download. 

Content and Features

Your BitTorrent does, however, offer verified torrents, allowing you to download files and feel safe about it. It also has a powerful search engine that allows you to search specifically by category, choosing from a dropdown list.

The site is also compatible with your device’s dark mode preferences. In other words, if you have your browser (or phone) set up for dark mode, the site will automatically detect that and display itself accordingly.

Mobile and Desktop Experience

I am not a huge fan of the mobile site. I think that this version doubled down on the cluttered aspects of the browser site that I mentioned earlier. It is not the easiest to navigate, and text and file names often jam into one another, making file names difficult to read. Oh, and there are plenty of ads (in classic torrent search engine fashion).

Suggestions that I have for Your BitTorrent

Well, as I just alluded to, I would love to see the site (both the mobile and desktop site) undergo a bit of a makeover. The mobile site needs to be optimized better. I want to be able to use this site on my phone without having to try and decode the text. Also, I really think that they should consider cooling down with their ads a little bit. I understand that the site offers a lot of free indie content for free, but that doesn’t mean that user-experience is any less important than it is on sites that you pay to use.

I also think that the site could offer more info. Other search engines offer screenshots, for instance, and credit information, for example, for free indie movies and TV shows. Some even link to trailers and reviews. Your BitTorrent does none of that – it only offers the file.

Lastly, this site needs to offer some community features. Users should be able to discuss files and content on the site, preferably through a comments section. This site has quite a bit of work cut out for it!