ExtraTorrent
 ExtraTorrent logo, as of November 2016 | |
Type of site | p2p |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Revenue | Advertisements, donations |
| Website | extratorrent.cc |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional, free |
| Launched | 2006 |
| Current status | Closed as of May 17, 2017 |
| Part of a series on |
| File sharing |
|---|
 |
| Technologies |
| Video sharing sites |
| BitTorrent sites |
| Academic/scholarly |
| File sharing networks |
| P2P clients |
| Streaming programs |
| Anonymous file sharing |
| Development and societal aspects |
| By country or region |
| Comparisons |
ExtraTorrent (commonly abbreviated ET) was an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Until its shut down it was among the top 5 BitTorrent indexes in the world, where visitors could search, download and contribute magnet links and torrent files, which facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing among users of the BitTorrent protocol.
History
ExtraTorrent was founded in 2006 by the administrator who acted under the alias "SaM".[1]
In November 2016, the website celebrated its 10-year anniversary. The website briefly changed their logo with a celebratory theme and launched a contest for users to guess the most downloaded movies on the site in exchange for prizes.[2]
Shutdown
On 17 May 2017, ExtraTorrent voluntarily ceased operations out of the blue. The entire website was replaced with a message from the administrator, stating that the website was to shut down permanently (as well as all mirror domains), and wipe all data relating to the website and its content.[3] The website was already down for days due to an emergency maintenance situation, just two days before the website shut down permanently.[4]
At the time of its shutdown, ExtraTorrent's primary domain name was the 291st most viewed website globally, according to statistics from Alexa Internet.[5]
Clones
Shortly after the shutdown of the official ExtraTorrent website, multiple clones and imitations appeared online.[6] Initially, the most popular one of these clones was located at extratorrent.cd. While this was at first speculated to be an official rehosting,[7] it was later discovered to be a re-skinned of The Pirate Bay, serving exact information from their database, under an ExtraTorrent interface.[8][9] Despite this however, the website still quickly gained a large userbase, reaching two million unique visitors in May 2017.[10] To date, there are no new "official" ExtraTorrent mirrors as the database for the original was wiped during its shutdown in 2017.[11] The site was blocked in Spain in 2019, with the blocking of other similar websites such as Lime Torrents and 1337x.[12]
References
- ↑ "ExtraTorrent website shuts down". 2017-05-19. https://www.asianage.com/technology/in-other-news/180517/extratorrent-website-shuts-down.html.
- ↑ "Torrent Icon ExtraTorrent Turns Ten Years old Today" (in en). 2016-11-15. https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-icon-extratorrent-turns-ten-years-old-today-161115/.
- ↑ "ExtraTorrent Shuts Down For Good" (in en). 2017-05-17. https://torrentfreak.com/extratorrent-shuts-down-for-good-170517/.
- ↑ "ExtraTorrent Suffers Extended Downtime (Updated)" (in en). 2017-05-15. https://torrentfreak.com/extratorrent-suffers-extended-downtime-170515/.
- ↑ "Extratorrent.cc Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". 2017-05-17. http://alexa.com/siteinfo/extratorrent.cc.
- ↑ Brown, Aaron (2017-05-31). "ExtraTorrent is BACK, but you might not want to trust the return of this torrent site" (in en). https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/810254/ExtraTorrent-CC-Proxy-Mirror-Back.
- ↑ "A Week After Its Death, Extratorrent Is Back Online (Updated)" (in en-US). 2017-05-22. https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/05/22/pristine-copy-extratorrent-cc-online/.
- ↑ "'Resurrected' Extratorrent Site Turns Out to Be a Scam..." (in en-US). 2017-05-25. https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/05/25/extratorrent-the-pirate-bay-clone/.
- ↑ Tiwari, Aditya (2017-05-24). "Extratorrent Is Still Dead — Don't Fall For Copycats And The Pirate Bay Mirrors Like Extratorrent.cd" (in en-US). https://fossbytes.com/extratorrent-still-dead-copycat-tpb-mirror/.
- ↑ "Extratorrent Clone Extratorrent.cd Is Approaching 10 Million Visitors" (in en-US). 2017-06-06. https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/06/06/extratorrent-cd-millions-visitors/.
- ↑ "No, ExtraTorrent Has Not Been Resurrected" (in en). 2017-05-24. https://torrentfreak.com/no-extratorrent-has-not-been-resurected-170524/.
- ↑ "Court Orders 1337x, LimeTorrents, and More Blocked in Spain" (in en). 2019-01-31. https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-1337x-limetorrents-and-more-blocked-in-spain-190131/.
 |  |
