Bitsnoop is dead. The website has shut down its popular Torrent Search Engine after struggling to siphon its usual web traffic. Despite terminating its services, Bitsnoop is somehow still up and is offering its data online through Zooqle.
The website first offered its service in 2008, giving users access to millions of torrents. The numbers quickly doubled, making Bitsnoop one of the most go-to torrent sites. However, its expansion didn’t stop internet service providers (ISP) from blocking user access. The bans, including in Europe, brought the demise of the website, as its revenue suffered enough to stop operations.
The shutdown comes nine years after its official launch.
Bitsnoop bids farewell
“So long! It’s been a nice ride, but all things eventually come to an end,” wrote the operators. “For now check out Zooqle – these guys seem to know their stuff. They took our data and said they will index it eventually.”
Prior to completely shutting down, Bitsnoop was still serving around 23 million torrents. The unfortunate news broke a day before April Fool’s Day, which led users to believe that it had to be an April Fool’s prank. As of this writing, however, the same message is posted on the website.
Zooqle takes over
Logging in to Bitsnoop now will take users to torrent search engine Zooqle. Tech publication TorrentFreak tried to contact the operators for a comment, but they chose to stay mum.
The publication has featured Bitsnoop a number of times for years, and at one point had been listed as one of the most visited torrent sites. Before deciding to put an end to its services, TF reported that Australia had also banned it.
While the website’s downfall is sad news to torrent users, the company’s move to hand over its data to Zooqle is something to be grateful about.
A newcomer in the torrent community, Zooqle launched last year and is quickly gaining its own audience after major torrent search engines started closing down in a similar move by ISPs. Zooqle is expected to become the top-visited torrent site in the future.
