Between rhizomes and trees: P2P information systems

The aim of the first part of this paper is to provide an overview of information retrieval in Pee-to-“Peer (P2P) information systems in the file-sharing domain. Starting with a general overview of the concept of P2P information systems, the paper then focuses on five desktop-accessible P2P information systems: Napster with its clones OpenNap and eDonkey, and Gnutella and FastTrack (i.e., Kazaa). A detailed description is given of the attributes and properties of each P2P file-sharing information system, followed by an evaluation of the respective P2P file–sharing applications, taking each in turn and examining their respective strengths and weaknesses. This paper concludes with a critical comparative analysis and gives some suggestions for further investigation.