Vuze

Formerly the feature-rich Azureus, Vuze takes Azureus' BitTorrent foundation and builds on top of it a network for video discovery and user-created video publishing tied together by social networking.

From XML torrent options to IP filters, firewall tests to UPnP plug-ins to baked-in social networking, Vuze isn't breaking new ground--the original BitTorrent client has gone this path, too--but it is doing it in an innovative and attractive way. When you install the program, you're faced with an interface that will be instantly familiar to iTunes users. In providing a general overview of their torrents and media playback controls, the new layout emphasizes user-initiated searches.

The Advanced tab has been replaced by My Library. The old Azureus is now completely gone, but because of the demands of users, Vuze 4.0 is much closer to the intent of its progenitor than Vuze 3.1 was. A simple, three-step guide that launches when you start Vuze helps you get acclimatized to the new Vuze. There's still work to be done: memory usage is up around 100MB, and although you can set up private trackers, you can't customize the search box. People new to torrenting or only interested in sharing media files might appreciate this visually active approach.