Microsoft’s File-Sharing Application

It’s hard to write about technology and not, on a regular basis, run up against Microsoft. The company is the 900-lb. gorilla that everyone seems to hate (despite its 90 percent marketshare).

Brittany, a Web intern, shot me this note today about Microsoft’s new file-sharing program, called Avalanche, which is supposed to be a competitor for BitTorrent. (Here is an AP story about the feds’ crackdown on Torrent users, and our own Eric Hellweg’s piece about Torrent files.)

Microsoft Creates File Sharing Technology

Microsoft is developing a technology titled Avalanche that could make it easier to distribute large files over the Internet. The technology is similar to peer-to-peer file swapping systems, but should prevent users from waiting for files broken in parts, according to an article in PCWorld.com.

Clearly, companies will need to get involved with file-sharing technologies if they hope to deliver large video files to users in any reasonable fashion, but it will be interesting to see if there is any actual impact on the file-swapping community. I’m also interested in seeing, assuming this actually works, if content companies will consider using this system to sell and distribute movies and music.