Broadcatching is a recent trend in which trackers (software that coordinates communication between the file creator and the peer who wants to download it) are combining the power of RSS feeds and torrent files to automate downloading of desired torrents. It works like this:

1. You subscribe to the RSS feed of a tracker Web site, which is updated as the tracker site adds new torrents.

2. You tell your BitTorrent client to watch the feed for certain torrents.

3. When a new torrent is added that you have identified as one you want, the BitTorrent client downloads it automatically.

The whole process is a lot like telling a personal video recorder device to record certain TV shows -- which it then does automatically without you having to tell the device when and on what channel the shows appear.

Broadcatching is an interesting idea for those who want to update song lists or video episodes of some publicly available program. With broadcatching in place, you won’t have to search for torrents very often. You just set up your broadcatching software to watch for torrents on your favorite tracker RSS feed and get the files when they become available.