
A limitation of Google’s Chrome browser (opens in new tab) is that it does work directly with magnet links. Some users prefer the simplicity of downloading the magnet link via the browser. While Torrent software has been the traditional method to access a magnet link to download the file, it is not the only possible method. Using this or another free torrent program, the magnet link can be pasted in, and the download can happen.

So next time you find a magnet link, what is there to do? These magnet links are designed to work with your favorite torrent download program, such as uTorrent. Rather, it indicates where the data is hosted as the link, via the hash code, can locate where the data to be downloaded is to come from.

There is no central authority involved in creating the magnet link, and this then pays dividends in file sharing searches as “Guaranteed” search terms.Īn additional advantage is that the link does not actually contain the file data. Unlike a torrent, any user that has the file is able to generate the magnet link. You can tell that it is a magnet link as it must start with the prefix ‘magnet.’Īnother advantage of the magnet link is the origin of it. As this hyperlink contains so much data, they tend to be quite long. This content hash comes from the actual file, is based upon a mathematical algorithm, and serves as a unique identifier to the file across multiple hosts. It is designed to contain the magnet identifier, the name of the file, and cryptographic content hash- this last part is important to understanding how this works. The actual magnet link is a hyperlink, and it has some parts to it.

The advantage would be that there would be no additional work from the torrent hosting. Overall, the reason that magnet links were created was to reduce the overhead of hosting files (opens in new tab) for download.
