It happens more and more, people trying to merge several items into one. We see it happening in the mobile phone sector, where nearly every phone is a camera and a radio as well, and in the software industry as well. This being good or bad is something for you to decide.
We’ve seen multiple applications, trying to expend the reach of Torrent clients and the like. The Vuze and xTorrent clients both implement the web in their applications, allowing you to browse torrents as well as downloading them.
However, why is it that the web should be integrated in a Torrent client? Why not integrating torrents into a web client? Well, Wyzo manages to do just that, and the results are astounding.
Wyzo – The Media Browser
Wyzo’s long-term aim is to make web browsing smarter and more enjoyable. They want the user to feel home and to have the tools he needs, at any given time.
Most of this reflects upon the ease of downloading, but doing so without repressing the global browsing experience.
The browser is based on Firefox, and many things remain the same. Other things however, got a real makeover. You can read about the features of the browser below.
New Look
This third version of Wyzo has been completely restyled. You’ll notice that the tabs and buttons have adapted a slick chrome-like appearance. It’s a professional-looking skin that’s easy on the eyes – nothing too graphical, like some of the things we see these days.
Torrent Downloads and Acceleration
In the area of downloading, Wyzo comes with two major trump cards; FireDownload and FireTorrent, two great addons developed by the guys behind Wyzo.
FireDownload is a simple download accelerator. It doesn’t do anything particularly fancy, except speeding up your downloads. A lot. By using multiple connections with the server, FireDownload can accelerate your downloads up to ten times their original speed.
FireTorrent handles, as you might’ve guessed, the torrent integration. All torrents are simply added to your browser downloads. You can download in multiple sessions, and seeding happens automatically. Using FireTorrent, torrents become as easy as direct downloads.
FireDownload and FireTorrents are also available as Firefox add-ons via FireAddons.com.
Search … Everything
Wyzo comes with a customized startpage, which allows you to search the interwebz for almost everything, including torrents, images, video, news, blogs and maps. Each section gives you access to multiple search engines (e.g. you can search for torrents on YouTorrent, Mininova, Vuze and Torrentz).
Loaded With Add-ons
Besides FireDownload and FireTorrent, Wyzo is pre-loaded with various other Firefox extenstions, that enhance the user’s browser experience.
Remember your OS’s alt-tab function? Ctrl-Tab does the same in your browser. It’s a slick and easy way to visually navigate between your open tabs.
Cooliris - previously covered on MakeUseOf – gives you a visual representation of web content. On supported sites, it crawls for pictures, videos and articles, and presents these as a picture wall. It’s an extremely beautiful, and addicting way to surf the web.
FireGestures allows you to perform simple actions through mouse gestures. Hold a trigger and draw simple shapes to navigate and interact with web pages. You can also add new gestures, by using user-scripts.
So what’s your take on Wyzo? What do you, or don’t you like about it? Tell us, and your fellow MakeUseOf readers, all about it in the comments section below!
Tagged: browsers • download manager • torrent • torrent search
