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These guys seem to be on to something – probably the reason Tribler racked up about $8 million in funding on the other side of the Pond.

Probable piracy problems aside, the peer-to-peer network is raising some eyebrows with its YouTube-compatible BitTorrent system throwing down Last.fm-style.

NewTeeVee's Janko Roettgers notes the difficulty torrent users have finding niche content in a p2p world where mainstream media dominates. Holland-based Tribler has a mission of helping its users locate and share user-generated media, including YouTube.

But the neatest (or spookiest, depending on view of smart technology) function of Tribler keeps track of user downloads, compares them to other users' downloads, and recommends media based on that history.

And this how the fringe content is introduced into the mainstream.

Tribler's "P2P infrastructure for user-generated content that also helps with content discovery" has not only attracted a ton of funding, but has also captured the attention Netherlands Public Broadcasting and other European television networks.

Expect to hear more about Tribler (and the BitTorrent clients that arise like it) in the future.