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Abstract

A peer-to-peer network providing a distributed document store is disclosed. A problem with known distributed document stores is that search engines are unable to respond quickly to changes in the stored documents or the addition or removal of peers. In the described embodiment, the peers in the network send search queries to one another and each keeps a record of which peers most frequently respond to those queries, and the quality of the responses. The peers each maintain a data structure 46 including connection weights to each of the other peers which depend on that record. By then forwarding search queries to peers selected on the basis of the connection weights, rapid retrieval of relevant documents is enabled. Search queries are generated automatically by peers as well as being generated by users. Because the generation of search queries (either automatically or by users) updates the connection weights, the peer-to-peer network is able to rapidly adapted to changes in the documents stored in the peer-to-peer network. In addition to document storage and retrieval the invention finds application in distributed applications which dynamically select a Web Service to perform a function at run-time.

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First Claim