P2P Web searches

prostoalex writes "Researchers at UCLA are looking for easier ways to implement Web searches by using peer-to-peer techniques to decrease the workload. 'Queries need to be passed along only a few links rather than flooded throughout the network, which keeps search-related traffic low,' reports Technology Research News."

Comments

If it's P2P...

[thebudgie]

The searching load on servers might be reduced i suppose. But from my experiences with P2P searches are long and slow. How would this help exactly?

I foresee..

[Gentlewhisper]

Maybe in future Google will implement a small server in our "Gmail notifier" application, and each time we search for something on google, it will cache some of the results, and should anyone close by ask for it, just forward the old results to them.

Save the server load on the main google server!

**Plus maybe some smart guy will figure out how to trade mp3s over the GoOgLe-P2p network! :D

UCLA discovers ultrapeers!

[Magila]

From a quick read of the article it sounds like what they've done is implemented a slightly more sophistcated/less deterministic version of the ultrapeer/hub system already in use by Gnutella/G2 Basicaly quereies are routed such that they are guarenteed to reach a "highly-connected node" which is the equivalent of an ultrapeer/hub node. The main difference is the folks at UCLA have come up with a novel method of picking ultrapeers, but the end result isn't much different.

The Ask Slashdot section

[Man of E]

P2P searching? The Ask Slashdot section does P2P searching already (in a less fancy-schmancy way), moreso than some would like :-)

Q: What is $search_term and how does it work?
A: A simple google search shows that $search_term is $blahblah and you use it like $this (repeated a hundred times)

Add another hundred replies about how the poster should search before submitting, and how AskSlashdot is degenerating into AskPeopleToGoogleForYou, and there you have it. P2P searching in all its glory.

Re:Too many people trying to use p2p

[cbiltcliffe]

I'm sick of all this hype about p2p. Its a good technology but its not like we have to use it for everything. The old ways of doing things still work.

You're right, but consider this:

The entertainment industry is trying very hard to convince the US government that all P2P can be used for is copyright infringement, so it should be banned completely.
Any non-infringing use obviously proves them wrong, no matter how out there it is.

Right now, I think we need as many off-the-wall uses as possible for P2P, even if it's not the most efficient way to accomplish the task.
Calling mass attention to these uses wouldn't hurt, either.