P2P Shows its Strength
November 05, 2002
Music sales are down, file-sharing numbers are up. The RIAA claims P2P networking is the primary suspect for this decline, while many in file-sharing circles that claim these allegations are untrue. As circumstantial evidence suggests that the music industry is indeed correct, the P2P population continues to pile up.
Due to stand-up public relations, KaZaA has stolen much of the P2P spotlight. With over 3 million users online and quickly marching towards 4, the FastTrack network has stolen the limelight from most other P2P networks. While it's received the most attention from the mainstream media, this doesn't mean it's the all-encompassing, omnipotent file-sharing network. Although its resourcefulness is impressive, even exceeding Napster in many respects, many other networks are quickly gaining strength and knocking on FastTrack's back door.
Unfortunately, no official statistics exist for WinMX. The P2P community has relied primarily on educated estimates produced from the developers of WinMX, AKA Frontcode Technologies. Mid-summer statistics placed this sizable network at over 1 million simultaneous users, with a weekly growth rate of 10%. The current network architecture doesn't allow for the reading of exact numbers, however from the growth of available files it's generally assumed that the WinMX network is comparable in size to FastTrack. If you can tolerate the incessant queues, WinMX can be a highly productive source for just about any multimedia file one could want.
The latest member of the million-user club goes to the unlikeliest of P2P heroes, iMesh. This once buggy, middling network managed to get its act together and finally reach its potential. For those who have been in the P2P circle since the days of Napster probably remember this application when it only had 5,000 or so users. Although it's been long considered the black sheep of the file-sharing community, it was responsible for such technological innovations such as multi-sourced downloading; the first P2P application to sport this feature. With strengths such as a wide selection of movies and compatibility with the FastTrack network, this Israeli network is showing no signs of slowing down.
If you know how to extract the vast resources of eDonkey2000, it'll quickly become obvious why this network has well over 200,000 users. From mp3's to videos to ISO's, eDonkey2000 has taken the P2P community by storm. eDonkey has proven to be a very flexible network. Many supplements, such as eMule, ShareReactor and FileNexus have made life on this network more tolerable. Although powerful, eDonkey2000 is not for everyone, especially the P2P newbie. Time and patience are required to figure out how to traverse the sub-networks and familiarize one's self with eDonkey's inherently difficult nature. Alas, this is mere semantics for most P2P users, especially with the new OverNet project promising (and already delivering) to resolve many of eDonkey's ills.
Quickly rising to P2P superstardom is Blubster. After the demise of AudioGalaxy, Blubster proved how resourceful the file-sharing community can be. In a matter of months, Blubster rose from a mere 5,000 users to an astonishing 95,000 (as of 6PM EST today). With 100,000 users only days away, Blubster stands to become the next P2P network to break the 1 million-user barrier. With version 2.0 a big success and revisions soon on the way, we can anticipate this network to be a continued player in the P2P world.
The list goes on. Many other networks, such as DirectConnect (now larger than Gnutella), FileTopia (rising fast) and FileNavigator (fresh new look and growing fast) continue to surge ahead in the P2P world. It seems just about any network with over 1,000 users can produce enough results for the average user. With online music sales falling, P2P usage rising and file-sharing once again a mainstream activity, victory for the music and movie industry resembles anything but a forgone conclusion.
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