BitTorrent, the company responsible for all those shareable digital files sitting in your PC/Notebook, has today launched the Beta version of its distributed web browser, Project Maelstorm.
Project Maelstrom, like company’s original BitTorrent client, follows that exact same principle – decentralising information and allowing peer-to-peer sharing across all internet related services. Through Maelstorm, BitTorrent aims to build “a web browser that powers a new way for web content to be published, accessed and consumed”.
Project Maelstorm was first opened up in Alpha mode in December last year. And BitTorrent says that it has received a tremendous response ever since the Alpha launch. Maelstorm has seen more than 10,000 developers, and an additional 3,500 publishers already working on its platform, with rapid additions.
So how different Maelstorm is from other browsers and more importantly, what does BitTorrent mean by saying “distributed web” ? Well, Maelstorm is an audacious attempt by BitTorrent to bring its peer-to-peer file sharing client features to the web browser. With Maelstorm, BitTorrent aims to power the web page you visit via people-to-people sharing, and not a central server.
Since Maelstorm is now in Beta, this means more and more people would be able to use and give feedback on BitTorrent’s ambitious browser project. There’s just one “big” limitation though – Beta is currently out only for Windows platform. So no gold here for Mac owners.
Announcing the beta launch, BitTorrent said in a blog post,
This is an open beta for Windows users and by empowering the browser with a distributed protocol we open a better future for publishers, creators, and users. And we do this while offering a more efficient, scalable and cost-effective alternative to HTTP.
The latest release also introduces the first developer tools for Project Maelstrom, empowering publishers and developers to leverage the efficiency of BitTorrent technology in their content and interactive experiences.
So if you have a Windows PC within your reach, and wish to have an early look at BitTorrent’s audacious attempt for a distributed web, you can head here to download the beta.
