Peer-to-Peer Information Retrieval

Abstract

Peer-to-peer technology is widely used for file sharing. In the past decade a number of prototype peer-to-peer information retrieval systems have been developed. Unfortunately, none of these has seen widespread real-world adoption and thus, in contrast with file sharing, information retrieval is still dominated by centralized solutions. In this article we provide an overview of the key challenges for peer-to-peer information retrieval and the work done so far. We want to stimulate and inspire further research to overcome these challenges. This will open the door to the development and large-scale deployment of real-world peer-to-peer information retrieval systems that rival existing centralized client-server solutions in terms of scalability, performance, user satisfaction, and freedom.